


10 Things I Hate About You

by My_LittleCorner



Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Based on the movie 10 things a Hate About You, Bets, Clawen, Dont let Owen’s charm fool you, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Latinos are extra about football soccer thats a fact, Romance, This fic took a life of its own so it’s just the premise what it has similar to the movie, clawen au, does sex really help you chill? Lies or facts?, everybody is all over Claire’s love life, lowkey some recipes to Central American food, no highschool but sometimes school does feel like a jungle filled with carnivores
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-07-13 08:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 47,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_LittleCorner/pseuds/My_LittleCorner
Summary: [Clawen AU]Most of Jurassic World employees think Claire Dearing is a square, zero fun, and very strict boss, so decide to pay new hire Owen Grady to go out with her with the hope that getting a boyfriend will calm her down a bit.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic was inspired by the 1999 movie ‘10 Things I Hate About You’, but it is a whole different take.

Weekdays were rather slow at the park during low season. The live count was still above the ten thousand, but that’s half the amount the park would usually handle on high season. The lines at the attractions were still long and slow and the streets were busy, it was only in charts and numbers where you could tell the difference. 

It was also that time of the year where every screen in Latin America had a football soccer game on, and yes that included the ones in the food courts and restaurants in Jurassic World. This was a major distraction for a significant proportion of the staff, like the one janitor making sure Main Street was always free of garbage. He was standing outside Winston’s, finding a way to watch the game through the restaurant’s window.

“¿Oye José, que te he dicho acerca de ver el football?” The redhead had once again caught him distracted with the TV. At the sudden sound of her voice, the man jumped and turned around to face her. She was passing by on her way to the innovation center, but if years of running that place had taught her something; it was that Latinos had an intense passion for soccer. A passion that couldn’t be compared to the one people back home had for American Football, Basketball, and Baseball combined.

Claire Dearing had moved to Isla Nublar when she was only nineteen years old, and now in her late twenties —a decade later, she mastered Spanish as a second language with perfection. She could read, listen, and speak it fluently. The only thing she couldn’t do was write it, but in all fairness... Spanish grammar was so complex and complicated, she was sure even some native speakers hesitated on whether a word was written with a _g_ or _j_.

About eighty percent of her staff were locals and about thirty percent of them only spoke Spanish, so she got to practice it every day. Claire had never been a sports enthusiast and since becoming the operations manager, she despised football soccer season with a passion. It was ridiculous how that game could glue her employees to the screens for ninety minutes.

“Lo siento señorita Dearing, no va a volver a suceder.” The janitor promised about not getting distracted again, at least not in a place where he could get caught. He casually started to broom around and from time to time looked over to his boss who was still standing there watching him clean. The game wasn’t even a local one, but one from the Spanish League; _‘el clásico’_ between Real Madrid and Barcelona was on and the game was tied with just ten minutes left.

“Eso fue lo que dijiste la última vez, José.” Claire reminded him how he kept using that excuse each time; how it was never going to happen again. The redhead walked into the restaurant and left José there to witness how she exchanged some words with the restaurant’s supervisor. He watched how she was handed the remote control, and turned the game off. Claire then walked back out to deal with José.

The janitor was disappointed and aggravated, but he knew better than giving his boss some attitude about missing the last ten minutes of that very important game. He had a family to feed and the park had amazing employee benefits that he knew he would never be able to find anywhere else in the country. Finding the final score online later on wasn’t the same as to watch it live but it would have to do.

“No oyó esto de mi, pero hay un gran grupo de empleados escondidos en la cocina de Fabián viendo el partido, eh.” The janitor totally rat out the rest of his co-workers, it seemed that it was either all of them got to sneak around and watch or neither would. Could he be blamed to feel a little bitter about that specific group still enjoying the game when he had fought the pressure to join them and instead decided to watch from afar from his spot while still trying to perform and do his job? He was sure if it had been the other way around, anyone would have called the rest out.

Claire narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. She turned on her heel and headed straight to the cafeteria. It took her just a few minutes, she walked fast when fuming. She made it into the employee’s only area at the back of the volcano-shaped building. This one was empty since it was not lunch time yet. Just like any business, Jurassic World offered employees a cafeteria that was opened twenty-four hours a day and it provided a different menu every meal. Some of the food was even complementary and fresh.

The clicking her heels were echoing around that long hall filled empty chairs and tables was not audible for anyone in the kitchen, she however could listen to the game through the large swing doors. She checked her wrist watch, she was already running late to the meeting she had with Simon Masrani and the board. She figured they would understand since she was dealing with a disciplinary matter. The redhead sent Zara, her assistant, a quick text message so she could call her boss and explain Claire’s delay.

“GOAAAALLLLLLL!” All of them started to celebrate, high-five, and cheer. The room going dead silence when they watched their boss storming into the kitchen and just standing there with her arms crossed against her chest; her green eyes scanning the place and taking a mental note of all the staff members in it. As she took in the whole picture, she noticed they all had sodas in their hands and all sorts of snacks had been prepared.

She counted heads, ten people who didn’t belong there where in that kitchen. All twenty eyes looking back and forth at each other. They were under the assumption that she had a meeting during the game, that’s why they had gone this far into enjoying themselves.

Claire was quiet, she had an eyebrow curved, waiting for one of them to speak first, step up, and try explain themselves. She waited for a few seconds until the silence became deadly.

“You are all fired.” She said with a soft tone of voice, almost too calmed for the statement to register in the employees. She turned around and walked out of the kitchen. All of them were left frowning and puzzled. Was she for real?

“Esto es lo que pasa cuando nadie te tira.” One of them suggested that it was the lack of sex what had her be so extreme when it came to disciplinary process or anything related to contact with the staff.

On her way back to the front of the innovation center, she called the head of security and had contacted Human Resources so they could take on the matter and once paperwork had been filed and badges had been collected, that group of people could be escorted out of the island.

She was dead serious about this.

 

* * *

 

“You can’t just fire ten people, Claire!” The matter had escalated to Simon on her way to the conference room where their meeting was to take place.

She shook her head and looked away. “Good morning to you too, sir.” She offered while finding her usual seat at the long wooden table in the room.

“These people have families to take care of, Claire.” He was way too understanding some times.

“And jobs.”

“You know, I’ve known you since you were a little girl.”

“I was nineteen.” She curved an eyebrow. She didn’t know what this had to do with anything, but still felt the need to correct him and remind him that she was no little girl when they had met.

“Close enough.” He shook his head.

“Mr. Masrani, with all due respect...I don’t see how termination is not the appropriate measure in this situation.” She wasn’t really in the mood to have the man talk to her about that time when she was young or whatever he had in mind. Regardless the age, she always took her job seriously and she expected the same from her employees.

“It was just a soccer game! The job was going to get done by the end of the day.” He always had this cheerful tone to his voice that made him sound so casual and like he didn’t take anything seriously.

“I didn’t know I signed their paychecks to come to work to watch some game.” She tilted her head, she really thought she had a point here.

“It was a couple of hours, have them work on their lunch break and make up the time by the end of the shift.” Masrani thought there were solutions.

“This is a recurring foul.” She felt the need to remind him that every soccer season was the same. They would take the unauthorized breaks and load themselves with the park’s food in order to enjoy the games like they were in their living room.

“You know what you need, Claire?” Simon added while looking straight into her eyes.

“For recruitment to hire ten new service people to fill the open positions.” She smiled.

“A boyfriend.”

“Sir—“

“You need a boyfriend. I’ve known you since you were a little girl.” He insisted.

“Nineteen.”

“I’ve known you since you were nineteen and not once have I heard you talk about dating someone.”

Claire frowned. She had dated...a couple of times and each of those two times she was simply not compatible with the guy. She never talked about it because it was not related to work and it certainly was none of his business.

“Or are you into girls, Claire?”

“Okay—this has officially turned inappropriate. So I think we should have the board join us and start this meeting, I’m sure their time is as valuable as ours.”

“I’m just saying. You should put yourself out there. You need more than just sun. You need a good la—“

“Sir, the board is ready to join you.” The assistant informed after gently opening the door and hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything important.

She had left Claire with her green eyes wide opened, not believing she was about to hear her boss suggest she go out there and get laid.

“Mr. Masrani, you can’t just un-fired them. It’d make me lose authority.” She explained.

“Of course not, you will approach them and give them a second chance. They are all sitting in HR waiting for you. You will figure out a more appropriate disciplinary process and let them keep their job under a written warning.” He suggested.

“Final warning.” She negotiated.

“Thank you, Claire.” Simon agreed. “They may come in.” He called out to the assistant so the board could now join them.

 

* * *

 

Claire wasn’t a mean boss by any means. She was just demanding and she knew what she wanted, however most of the park’s staff were starting to lose their mind at how strict and tense she had been lately.

It hadn’t only been her boss to suggest she got laid, Karen would do that at times too. It was aggravating, because just like any woman she enjoyed sex but it simply wasn’t a priority to her and her source of stress was certainly not the lack of it.

However, none of the people who worked with her could relate to the amount of pressure she dealt with, so they all agreed that a man who could satisfy her sexually would relax her a little.

That’s why the ten employees she had almost gotten fired had taken it on their hands to find her the perfect match.

For the past few days, a very discreet movement was going on at the park. They were on a mission to cast the perfect man for her, find someone who liked extreme situations, difficult women, and who wouldn’t get scared easily.

In their eyes, dating the redhead would take a lot of stamina and a man who knew how to keep his woman in check.

Now it was just a matter of finding him and to cross fingers and hope that said man was in Isla Nublar.


	2. Chapter 2

The movement to find Claire Dearing a match to hopefully keep her distracted for at least the soccer season was now in full motion at Jurassic World.

This was something that mostly only local employees had going on. Those she worked closed with, like the people at the control center and high level corporates were unaware of this little project and they would unlikely be asked to get involved.

Before the employees took the liberty to start looking for their perfect match, the ten minds behind this operation had opened a little funds pot. They knew this was an investment, a very expensive one at that, and so they had gone around asking their co-workers to chip in if they wanted to take advantage of the possible outcome.

Takers, security, cooking, and cleaning staff, attraction operators, and even some vendor staff were very much interested on making this work. The Champions League had just kicked in and they all were desperate to be able to watch their games in peace. If paying some guy to keep the boss away meant they would get to watch some games, then they all were willing to do so.

Judging by the large amount of employees who had quickly joined, you could tell what the popular opinion on the woman in charge was. It would be unfair to say she was hated, but she was certainly feared. It didn’t take much effort to gather a hundred and fifty dollars in just a few days; which they hoped would be enough to cover a least five dates, preferably to take place during soccer games.

They didn’t intend for this to look like they were casting the male star for some telenovela, but that’s exactly what it looked like they were doing. The cleaning staff had arranged for their janitor room to be used as the little gathering spot where the first stage of their plan would take place; casting their guy.

El Cuartel General; which was the name they had for the janitor’s room turned headquarters, was now opened for interviews. They knew they had to be very meticulous about their final pick, they not only needed a man who would agree to do this and have the personality to put up with her, but most importantly find someone who she would find attractive and hopefully charming enough to agree go out with.

The masterminds behind the whole thing had put together a little panel, they were very organized and serious about this. That’s how passionate people were about soccer in Latin America, specially when it came to Real Madrid, most of the locals’ favorite team; their own national goalkeeper Keylor Navas played for the famous Spanish team.

The panel featured five of them, three women and two men. They were in charge of interviewing each candidate and study each of them before deciding who would be the best match, and if they were lucky the perfect match.

So far, they had a list of losers whom the redhead would probably never even notice they existed if it weren’t for her being their boss. Claire was an attractive woman there was no denying, so naturally some of the employees volunteered try woo her and keep her distracted. But the panel couldn’t see her falling for any of those guys; at first glance it was obvious she was way out of their league.

One of them was one of those guys who liked using their curly hair long. He was always blasting spanish heavy metal on his headphones and wearing shirts featuring skulls under his uniform. It was evident he had to go through the trouble of taking a few piercings off before clocking in. He not only didn’t look like the redhead’s type; but he had already tried and failed at it.

Another interested guy who for some reason thought he might have a shot, was Julian, who everybody called ‘Lonjas’. He was a little overweight, but that wasn’t really the main reason why they knew he was going to fail the mission. His co-workers were always making fun of him because it didn’t matter the time of the day, every time he came face to face with the operations manager he would stutter and all she would notice was the usual food stain on his uniform. Sometimes it was jam from a donut, other times would be ketchup or mustard. It would take him five minutes to try tell her how he thought she was the most beautiful woman on earth and all she would notice was his lack of hygiene and would ask him to change his shirt.

To their surprise, one of the staff supervisors was interested. He was in charge of the hub on weekends, he wore a suit to work. He was skinny and tall and also had a weird thing for frogs. It didn’t matter whom he was talking to, he would randomly share some amphibian fun fact with them. The panel couldn’t see past how much a stereotypical nerd he was and immediately revoked him. They didn’t even bother to check how his approach towards Claire was, he was definitely a big no.

As they went by, the process of finding someone got slimmer. There truly wasn’t a man in that island meant for their superior, it seemed. They were losing hope and even feel bad for her since that island was all there was and it was starting to seem like she would end up alone at this rate.

The panel was going through the twenty men they had seen so far, trying to see if one of them could at least try and have a shot. They had a plan B of course, but they wanted to make sure none of the volunteers would be fit before going out there and play Tinder with her.

“We found him!” One of the cleaning employees announced, he was panting and holding from the door frame so he could keep his balance. He had come running, his janitor electric cart outside barely parked. He immediately stole the panel’s attention.

 

* * *

 

To make it less obvious, only three of them had gone back with the one person. He had been assigned the new raptors paddock on the far east side of the island.He had to clean raptor crap among other things, but that had given him the opportunity to meet Owen Grady. He was a nice, easy going guy who had been taken out of the navy to work on this behavioral project for InGen.

The four guys watching him from the gangway didn’t know much detail about the project, they weren’t even sure if Claire herself knew what the project was about. They had just moved all four raptors to their new enclosure, now that they were adults. The predators were nine months old by now. Owen had been working at the park for over ten months but not many of the staff knew about him since he wasn’t really the kind to socialize much. His day was usually divided in two; he would spend the morning working with his pack and his journal on their progress and then after work he would dedicate his afternoon to building his bungalow which he had finished putting together a few yards east off the park, near the paddock.

This was the first time any of the four guys had seen a raptor, but there were many legends surrounding the park, not only about what had happened at the original one but before this current one even opened. It was no secret that raptors were no puppies, in fact they were highly intelligent and lethal.

The men were in awe, like kids watching Superman fight the biggest of monsters. Owen was standing on the other side of the gangway, giving his raptors instructions and making it seem like having an intelligent predator follow your will was effortless.

He had his hand up in the air, something that looked like a clicker in his fist. All four raptors were on their mark, waiting for his signal before they ran off into the jungle. They had a big enclosure there. After a few minutes, one of them came back with a dummy in her mouth. Apparently the men had missed the first part of the training session where the raptors had been given a mark and they had to go find it. It was still beyond impressive to watch this man control these animals this way.

Owen was everything they needed; he was good looking, dangerous, obviously not scared of anything, and he knew how to deal with scary females. Now they just needed to approach him and find out if he was up to the challenge and tame a whole different kind of beast, a certain redhead.

Owen looked up from the raptors after feeding each their respective treat. He narrowed his eyes trying to make out who were the man observing him from the other side. He figured they were from the cleaning staff and didn’t mind them, he smiled to himself liking the little attention.

 

* * *

 

That afternoon, Owen had ridden his brand new motorcycle over to Main Street. It was lunch time and there weren’t any close restaurants or food stands by the paddock. The closest ones were by the kayak cruise so he decided to just make it all the way to the center of the park, find himself a nice restaurant were he could relax for an hour. He wished he could have a cold beer but he was working and didn’t want any unnecessary trouble.

He got himself a double cheeseburger and a large side of french fries. He was quietly eating at one of the tables outdoors when two of the janitors interrupted his meal.The former navy man was left holding his cheeseburger in the air, his hazel eyes on the Latino men once he was asked if he was busy.

“A little bit, yeah.” He nodded condescendingly. Owen could tell the janitor who had just addressed him was a little nervous, it was understandable since he was about to ask a huge favor from him and out of the blue at that. “What’s wrong, Miguel?” Owen read his name on the tag clipped to his uniform. The other janitor was there just for moral support, he figured.

“Do you know Miss Dearing?” He wondered watching Owen take a bite of his burger and chew on it.

He nodded his head before reaching out for his soda and taking a sip, “The operations manager, I’ve heard of her.” He nodded before picking one of his fries and nibbling on it.

“It’s not true what they say, she’s a lovely woman.” The other janitor added making Owen tilt his head before looking back at Miguel. He was officially confused and unbothered.

“That’s her over there.” Miguel casually pointed over at a table a few feet from them. The redhead was on her laptop, completely focused on what she was typing. She had an untouched plate of food by her side and by the look of it, it seemed it had been there for about ten minutes now.

Owen casually looked her way and nodded, “okay.” He looked back at his plate and picked his cheeseburger back up so he could give it another bite.

“We want you to go out with her.” The second janitor, Hector, blurted out. The two janitors had been in the group of ten that she almost got fired that other day.

Owen chuckled, “and why would I go out with her?” He didn’t get it. Why were these two crazy Latinos asking him this. “Is this something you do around here? Bug people who eat lunch alone and play match maker?” He moved his fingers around, “if we are eating alone is because we don’t want to be bothered.” He added, slowly leaning over as if he was telling them a big secret.

“So we can watch football and have some peace.” They begged him, before they gave him the whole story and motive behind this.

Owen had found himself looking over to her table while Hector kept talking. He studied her composure and how concentrated she was on her work. She was very pretty, there was no doubt about that. “She doesn’t look like the kind of woman who needs to be set up by two of her minions.” He shook his head rejecting their request.

“Just one time, man.” Miguel put his hands together begging, “We can pay you thirty bucks.” He nodded with a hopeful smile, maybe he would do it for some cash.

Owen shifted his eyes between both janitors and then back at the redhead. She was wearing a maroon cap-sleeve pencil dress and a pair of high heels. She had her leg crossed under the table, Owen lingered there a couple of seconds admiring her for a moment. 

He sighed not too convinced, not because he didn’t find her attractive but because these people not being able to watch their soccer was not his problem.

“You can’t even stop staring.” Miguel teased and nudged him interrupting Owen’s train of thought.

The Navy guy looked back and smirked, they were not lying. That smirk gave the two janitors some hope, they were standing there like two teenagers who had just asked their parents if they could go to a friend’s party and after some convincing they were just waiting for the green light and the verbal authorization.

Owen licked his lips and was about to shake hands on it when their little arrangement was interrupted by the redhead’s sudden shouting.

She had gotten a call from maintenance. They were working on fixing a malfunction with the monorail. It had been out of service all day, and they had to come up with a way to sell the idea that riding bikes around the park was a whole new level of experience, they also had some of the jeeps working as shuttles between attractions for those who couldn’t ride a bike. Claire had it synchronized to the second and it seemed the guest were actually enjoying themselves, but it was still frustrating that the monorail didn’t want to work.

Both janitors and Owen witnessed her at her highest peak of frustration and irritability. She couldn’t understand why it was taking all day, this was the forth time her maintenance supervisor had changed the deadline to have it up and running.

“Don’t make me go over there and show you how to do your job, Pete.” The redhead threatened.

The janitors got nervous while Owen watched her get intense and a little too demanding. Hector and Miguel were used to being called out like that when they were the ones messing up and it was one of the reasons why they thought that getting her a boyfriend to get laid would calm her down.

“You have until five to get it fixed, otherwise don’t even bother and leave your badge with my assistant, understood?” She finished the call and set her cellphone by her side. “I have to do everything myself.” She mumbled before regaining focus and going back to work.

“Fifty bucks?” Hector grinned.

 

* * *

 

Owen casually stood up from his table and walked over to Claire’s. “I don’t think we have been introduced.” He casually interrupted her typing. He noticed she was very fast at that, it felt like she was sending ten emails per minute.

Green eyes moved from the laptop screen to Owen. She curved an eyebrow and watched him take the chair by hers.

“I’m Owen Grady, the man of your dreams.” He offered a cheeky grin.

Claire dismissed him and went back to her work.

“Tough pleaser, huh.”

“That or your pick-up lines are terrible.” She offered without making eye contact.

“I swear they work all the time, so it’s definitely you.” He teased her.

“Work on whom exactly? Blondes with a low IQ?” She looked over and pursed her lips.

“How about you tell me what works on you, then? And we try this again.” He smiled, trying to find her eyes but she was too busy working.

Claire sighed and that’s when she started to save all her work. This guy and his random need to annoy her were her cue to get out of there and go back to her office, where no one was allowed to come in unless they had an appointment. “How about you go back to where you came from and leave me alone?” She suggested.

“Or you could let me get you something to eat since your food is now cold.” He insisted, making notice of the forgotten plate of food on her table.

“I don’t have time for this.” She closed her laptop and without another word, she grabbed her things, stood up, and left him there.

He looked back to Hector and Miguel whom had stayed close by to witness the whole thing. Owen looked puzzled, she was going to be a challenge that was for sure.

“Estamos jodidos.” Miguel noticed how screwed they were.

Owen wasn’t the kind to give up easy, they truly had picked the best guy for this bet. He had access to her daily routine and certain habits just with the information the people involved knew about her.

She had left her food untouched, which meant she had yet to eat. The kitchen staff took care of that. They fixed her favorite salad and gave it to Owen to take to her office. She had a weak spot for Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad. It was fools proof, it would take a lot in her to reject the dish.

Teresa, the janitor in charge of cleaning Claire’s floor, used her access to help bring Owen around the innovation center, and up to the redhead’s office. Once in front of Zara’s desk, it was up to his charm to convince her to let him see the boss.

He explained how he had seen her around and was trying to impress her, to his luck Zara was in the wagon of people who thought that having a boyfriend would do her some good. She also knew Owen was sort of her type, but knowing Claire she was probably going to play hard to get.

She asked Owen for a minute so she could announced him. He nodded and placing the salad plate and fork on the front counter, he fixed his vest and his hair a little bit. He gathered his things and waited for Zara to let him know he could come in.

“You got to be kidding me.” Claire rolled her eyes from her desk.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Owen had immediately realized this was a horrible idea. That redhead was going to be tough to crack and those janitors were high as a kite if they expected him to bother with the trouble.

The kitchen staff had not lied when they said she wouldn’t be able to resist that salad. Claire had even given him a second of false hope when she asked him to come in and set the salad on her desk. That’s all the time he had with her before she kicked him out, asking him to close the door behind him.

Zara, the assistant, had been very helpful assuring him that food was an easy tool toget her attention. She barely had time to eat — and even if she didn’t look like one, she was still human and had to eat from time to time. The English woman had also tipped him on Claire’s drink of choice; Owen had looked so defeated after leaving that office that she had to do something to help him out.

He had been publicly humiliated by Claire twice in less than an hour. Owen had enough experience with women to know by now that being insistent was not going to help his case at all, but that’s what his new friends — if you could call them that, wanted him to do. They were desperate to have Owen bring Claire on board before the next soccer match; which would happen in seven days from tomorrow.

“I’m not going to be begging some crazy chick to go out with me.” He shrugged indifferently while he walked downstairs to the paddock. “I have better things to do.” He started looking around for his tools so he could go back to work and forget about this afternoon.

“She’s not crazy.... she’s just—in..intense.” Hector begged him. Both Miguel and him were the two who had better English out of the ten, therefore they would be the ones directly communicating with Owen.

“I could see that.” He huffed while he kept walking around, the two Latino men following him like dogs. “I thought this would be some easy money, but there’s nothing easy about her.” He kept brushing their pleading off, their case was truly not his problem.

“Would you do it for more cash? Seventy-five dollars for one date.” Miguel offered him half of what they had collected in their fund. They would have to come up with a solution and get more money if it would end up being this expensive. They were hoping it wouldn’t, but not even they had anticipating for the redhead to be this cold and annoyed by the handsome man they had carefully picked for her.

“A hundred bucks, up front, and twenty-five extra for each time I have to try get her to bite the bait.” Owen was thinking of buying some luxury parts for his bike with that extra cash. He knew this would take more than one try, and if he was going to let some holier-than-thou chick walk all over him and keep humiliating him... the least he could do was think of his sweet ride and how pimping the bike up would make this whole trouble worth it.

The employees were doing this for their soccer team, he was going to do it for his Scrambler.

“Deal.” Hector agreed. “But remember we have eyes everywhere. We won’t pay you for the try unless we agree you did the best you could.” They were no fools.

Owen sighed, still not believing he was still in this mess and shook hands with them, closing the deal. There was not turning back. It seemed he now was going to be into the fiery redhead everyone feared — or at least pretend he was, just so these goofs could watch some soccer in peace.

 

* * *

 

Owen released a heavy sigh. The Claire Dearing Starbucks usual in one hand and a fresh western breakfast omelette in the other. He had made it early to her office, Zara informing him she was running late. However, the assistant had teamed up with him and let him stepped into the office for him wait there.

This gave Owen some minutes to clear his mind, put his charming smile on even if he didn’t want anything to do with her. He set her breakfast and coffee on the middle table in front of the couch, and casually let his hazel eyes scan her office.

Owen could tell a lot about her just by sitting in there. Everything was neatly in place. It was simple but chic. The view from there was pretty nice as well, he stretched his neck lightly trying to have a look at it from there. The glass wall behind her desk offered a view to the lagoon. He had heard they were in the last stage of introducing the park’s first marine monster; the mosasaurus. He couldn’t wait to check that one out.

This event was a big deal for the park and a lot of pressure on the redhead, the whole asset still under confidential stage so most employees couldn’t connect the dots between the attraction and her short temper being more sensitive to exploding than it usually was.

He heard voices coming from outside her office, he could tell one of them was Zara because of the accent and he quickly assumed the other one belonged to the boss.

A pair of heels clicking against the floor seemed to get closer, the sound of a sigh brought his sight up from his hands.

“Didn’t I ask you to leave?” Claire tilted her head.

“That was yesterday.” He reached out for the coffee he had brought for her, glad she didn’t seem to have one in hand already. She never did, it was until after she settled in her office when she found a minute to go back down and get one. 

“Okay...” She looked to the side a little confused, “So is that how it’s going to be? Me asking you to leave me alone every day?” Her green eyes moved down to the coffee he was holding out, Owen standing in front of her by then.

“Or... you could make this smoothly better for us and just give me a shot.” He grinned.

Claire let a couple of seconds tick, her facial expression dead panned, “please get out.”

Owen felt his fingers going slightly tensed around the coffee, trying to have his mind sell him the idea that he had just made twenty-five bucks out of this, and let his thoughts go back to his bike.

He nodded and without fighting her, he started to walk out.

“Leave the coffee.” She instructed before taking it from him. She took a sip and closed the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

That was a very passionate group of employees. If they put this much work and dedication into anything, they could assemble a solid labor union at the park, but Central Americans were lazy. They were lazy and stingy for most things except soccer. They had been left with only twenty-five bucks in their fund after paying Owen for his efforts and that (up front) first date, however they wouldn’t give up. It was time to come up with a plan.

Each janitor kart was displaying a funds jar now, that way all of them could be collecting change from every corner around the park. The jars read their inspirational tag; ‘Por Navas, por el Real, por el Fútbol’ and they had even decorated them with their team’s official colors. They were loving this, because not only did they get to collect the change found misplaced and the donations given by other employees, but some guest would assume it was a tip jar and leave them some sweet cash in there. Even staff who were unaware of the bet would leave their change with them.

Every day, at the end of their shifts, everyone of them would head to different vendors and cash-in the change they had collected. Gift shops and food stands alike always welcomed it, helping them avoid giving Owen a bunch of single bills and quarters for his trouble.

On his end, Owen didn’t really feel like he was making much progress. He had spent the last three days bringing that woman her morning coffee and breakfast just to watch her ask him to leave. One of those times, she even closed the door on his face. But then again, he let the thought of having seventy-five bucks just that easy drown the humiliating aspect of his insisting.

That morning though, he decided to try something different. He was running out of time and these people were pressuring him, insisting they didn’t pay him twenty-five bucks every day just for them to end up missing the match. If they had paid him those hundred bucks up front, they were expecting him to have Claire distracted enough for them to enjoy the game.

Claire greeted Zara good morning on her way to her office. The door was closed and that made her wonder, “please tell me he is not in there naked on my couch or something.” The redhead closed her eyes, already expecting to see him there just like the past few days.

“He didn’t come today.” The English woman shook her head and smiled softly.

“Oh.” Claire frowned a little. This twirly feeling invading her stomach while she nibbled on her lower lip. Why was she even caring if he hadn’t come over? It kind of upset her actually, how dare he. This man had spent half the week greeting her with coffee and good breakfast, just for what? To stop doing it eventually and so fast? In all honesty, Claire wasn’t even surprised. That’s why she hadn’t even bothered show him some gratitude. Because yes, she quietly appreciated the detail.

“Is everything okay?” Zara tilted her head, noticing Claire was still standing there.

“Yeah.” She nodded and reaching out, she opened the door to her office and walked in.

Zara smiled to herself, taking notice on how the Raptor Wangler’s absence had gotten to her boss.

The next few hours had gone rather uneasy for Claire, she was hungry and was quietly missing that fresh hot breakfast she had been slowly getting used to. She found a small window of down time which she used to walk to the break room down the hall from her office.

She had a five dollar bill with her, trying to get some of those Pingüinos she loved so much. They were cream filled chocolate cupcakes that the vending machine offered for like seventy-five cents. It was ridiculous that she was using that bill to get them, because she would then end up with this heavy amount of change and she hated change. That was one of the reasons why she didn’t have any on her at the moment; a couple of days ago she had given all the change in her purse and around her office to the cleaning lady “for [her] cute little jar”.

The main reason why she was feeling beyond stupid doing this was because the machine wouldn’t even take her bill. She always ended up fighting with the vending machine, it was the same every single time. She’d watch it take the money and immediately take it out with an error message being displayed on the screen. She was hungry and she didn’t have time for this.

“Just take it, you bitch!” She was aggravated after dealing with it for five minutes now. The only reason why she didn’t start kicking it was because there was a security camera right on the corner and she was positive the control room was starting to bet on a side; who would win the fight? Claire or the vending machine, the only one in that whole island that could afford refused giving her what she wanted unless she asked nicely.

The redhead sighed. She had tried all sorts of ‘tricks’, folding the bill, using the edge of the machine to help the folds be less pressed in it, and so on.

She turned around just to watch Owen walking in. Yes he was looking for her, and yes, Zara had told him where to find her.

She immediately turned around ignoring his presence which made him smirk, “it doesn’t want to cooperate huh?” He chuckled. “May I?” He reached out for the bill.

Owen fed it to the machine and it made those little sounds announcing it was reading it. Claire would really hate everything if it would work with him. She avoided making eye contact, looking away while she felt his eyes on her.

The vending machine returned the bill which made Claire smile to herself. Owen fished for some change in his pocket, the redhead parted her lips slightly almost waiting for him to ask what was it that she wanted so he could get it for her.

He never did, instead he punched the numbers for some corn based snacks into the board. There was this Central American brand that had about six kinds of different snacks in the machine. He got one of each, they were very cheap about a quarter each.

Claire shifted, her arms folded against her chest, watching him casually move around the kitchen. He found a lemon in the fridge and grabbed a plastic glass and a couple of spoons from the cupboard, as well as the Tajín that was for commune use.

“C’mon.” Owen motioned with his hand so she could meet him at one of the tables, they had the break room all for themselves.

It was only the two of them and one maintenance guy whom had walked in a few minutes after Owen. This one guy was working on fixing one of the microwaves, but Owen was positive he was the one keeping an eye on them; making sure the twenty-five bucks for this try were fairly earned.

Owen placed everything on the table and pulled the chair out for her.

Claire hesitated joining him for a second, but she was really curious to see what he was going to do with all those snacks. She cleared her throat and taking the chair, she pulled closer.

Her green eyes scanned the different snacks, she noticed that at least two of those were very hot.

She was quiet while Owen mixed them all in the glass, squeezed the lemon and sprinkled some Tajín in there. He covered the glass with his hand and shook it softly.

Claire licked her lips, his peculiar way of fixing the snacks making her eager to taste it.

He grabbed one of the spoons and dug into the glass with it, “open big.” He smiledwhile taking the spoon over to her lips.

The redhead bit on her lower lip and after narrowing her eyes and offering him a glance, she opened her mouth letting him feed her that first bite.

She smiled while chewing on it, it was actually really good. She made a face tasting the sour of the lemon juice and immediately after started gasping because of the hot of some of the snacks.

Owen couldn’t help laugh and noticed how cute she actually was. His eyes soft on her red cheeks before she stood up and poured herself a glass of water.

Claire gulped half of it in less than a second and laughed along with him once the effect had passed.

Owen used the same spoon to have a bite himself, he was used to the hot so his reaction wasn’t the same.

Claire was soon back on her chair by his side. She fixed her eyes on his and nibbling on her lower lip she leaned closer, asking for him to feed her again.

The maintenance guy behind them, he pulled his cellphone out and took a picture of Owen feeding the redhead. He sent it to the rest of the group celebrating that some progress had finally been made.

“Someone is hungry.” Owen teased her, feeling how she was once again leaning closer for more.

Claire was smiling big, “Well, you see... I didn’t have breakfast today.” She casually shrugged.

“How come? Is your chef on strike or something?” Owen laughed, fully aware of what she was doing there.

She shook her head before she opened big and felt him feed her another bite, Claire had already gotten used to the sour and hot of the little snack. “I don’t know, I guess I was expecting for someone to bring me some but he didn’t show up.” She narrowed her eyes, flirting a little with him.

“What a dick.” Owen shook his head.

“Hmmm.”

“Maybe he felt you didn’t care for it.” Owen shrugged before he took a bite of their snacks.

“I didn’t.” Claire said firmly, but her green eyes found his giving away that not caring was a thing of the past, sort of.

He found his hazel eyes exploring hers, they were this peculiar shade of green; so beautiful and penetrating. “Maybe I can make it up to you.” He suggested softly.

She tilted her head, curious to hear what he had in mind.

“This is certainly not a proper breakfast by any means, maybe we could do lunch?” He suggested.

The redhead was quiet for a couple of seconds, studying his hazel eyes and trying to figure out his intentions, because this certainly was not something that happened to her very often. “What are you after?” She murmured.

“What do you mean?” He scratched his arm lightly.

“If I were you, I would have told myself to go fuck herself after that first time.” She shrugged.

“What can I say? I’m into it.” He chuckled.

She nodded and went quiet again. She was playing with her fingers. He could tell she was very hesitant and wish he could do something to encourage her to agree, but he decided to remain silent, and give her the time she needed.

“Lunch?” She echoed his suggestion from before.

“I can bring it up to your office, whatever works for you.” He insisted.

Claire smiled softly and nibbled on her lower lip. He was looking at her with wonder and anticipation, and she found it really hard to decline. So hard that she pushed herself into doing so, “I don’t—I don’t think so.” She shook her head.

He frowned, this chick was really something else. He could swear she had been flirting with him, and had just hinted for him to keep bringing her breakfast. So what was her deal?

“I’m sorry I can’t finish our snack, but I went over time and I’m running late for a meeting.” She said apologetically before standing up and heading out of the break room.

Once again, leaving Owen sitting there wondering what would it take to have her open up a little bit, enough for him to get away with dating her so he could comply with his part of the deal.


	4. Chapter 4

Claire was greeted with fresh breakfast, big enough for two, and her usual coffee. The detail she had admitted to have missed the previous morning had been left with Zara this time. The redhead was good at playing mind games, but this one was puzzling her. She was about to fall for the trap, and in all honestly... she didn’t mind.

She hadn’t seen Owen since that previous morning. It was hard to deny she had found his spontaneity charming and the little mix of snacks he had prepared for them had actually been of her liking. She had cut their little moment short with the excuse that she had a meeting and that was not a lie, but if Claire had to be honest with herself she’d admit to getting a little scared.

It wasn’t every day that she allowed herself to get carried away. She had to laugh at herself later that day; allowing him to feed her? And why exactly was she flirting with him? She was not used to any of this, her experience so limited that it made her feel like she was a teenager all over again.

It was probably obvious that her cold attitude towards him was a self-defense mechanism afraid of getting hurt, afraid of losing control. That’s why she had to decline his suggestion to have lunch together, she wanted to and she hoped he knew she did—but, it scared the shit out of her how much she had found herself really wanting to do so.

“Where is he?” She asked upon peeking into what he had brought her for breakfast this time. It was a fresh mushroom white omelette, pancakes, a sausage, two bacon strips, and a cup of fresh fruit.

“He just dropped this and left, not even five minutes ago.” Zara shrugged.

Claire tapped her fingers on the front counter and nibbled on her lower lip. She smiled to herself and shook her head, she truly couldn’t believe she was doing this; fully aware that she was straight out walking into it. The redhead turned around on her heel, headed back to the elevator, and out of the building.

Owen had been casually standing outside the Innovation Center, his back to the door. He grinned to himself upon hearing that familiar voice calling out for him. It was as if he had everything calculated by the second. He was waiting for her to come back downstairs and catch him up.

“So, is that how things are going to be? You just dropping some food and expect me to eat it all by myself?” She wondered, keeping the door open by holding from the handle.

The raptor wangler slowly turned around and narrowed his eyes against the sun’s reflection on his face.

“You don’t really believe I eat anything that’s been deep fried, do you?” She called him out with a light smile. Claire wanted him to know she had purposely fallen for his little game; she still had control of the situation.

“I was just going to go get something to drink and get back upstairs.” He lied, his index finger pointing out at the Starbucks building nearby.

“Hmmm.” She nodded incredulously. “Are you coming?” Claire finally added after a few seconds of silence and noticing he had not showed any signs of having the intention to move.

“Yeah~” He nodded and slowly started walking back to the door. He let her go back in first and followed after her, his hand resting on the small of her back.

 

* * *

 

The two of them were sitting next to each other on that couch in her office. The foam container on his lap while she leaned closer and took a bite of the omelette from her fork. She cut a piece of the sausage and drove it to his lips. Claire couldn’t help smile at him, watching him nibble on the food.

“Any good?” She asked.

“Yeah, you should have a piece.” He suggested, but the redhead immediately shook her head. She was not going anywhere that greasy sausage or even the bacon strips.

“No, I’m good.” She insisted.

Owen tilted his head and smiled back once he was done with his bite. She had a cute little smile, one he was positive she didn’t display too often, “so what’s the secret?” He casually wondered, taking the fork away from her and pinching some of the watermelon in the fruit cup to feed her, “the secret to your smile?” He drove the fork up and let his eyes fall on her lips as she took the bite.

Claire blushed, her cheeks matching the color of the fruit he had just fed her. She chuckled once she had swallowed and shook her head, “I’m not telling.” She pursed her lips. “Besides, wouldn’t you want to figure it out yourself?” She frowned, curious. She wasn’t sure if her intentions were clear, disguised in her question, but she hoped he’d get them.

“Do you want me to?” He asked softly, feeding her another bite before letting his eyes study hers.

Claire looked away, nibbling on her lower lip. “Are you worth it?” She asked almost murmuring.

“Worth what?” Owen tilted his head to the side.

“The chance.” She shrugged lightly.

Owen remained silent for a couple of seconds, his hazel eyes on her green ones, “go out with me~” He asked gently, “just one time and decide that for yourself.” He proposed.

He was very insisting, but Claire wasn’t finding that irritating anymore. It did make her wonder why he kept pushing it, kept trying to get her to agree. She was flattered, but curious. How long had it been by now? Four days? He had determination and patience and Claire admired that.

The redhead sighed softly and looked down to her hands, she shook her head a couple of times before she let her eyes fall back on his. She parted her lips, but she knew the words that would come out wouldn’t be the ones she wanted to say. Her brain reacted faster than her heart and she was grateful for that, except... she was hoping he truly was; worth the chance. She nodded softly and smiled shyly at him.

Owen curved an eyebrow and smiled faintly. Was she nodding or was she shaking her head? He had to figure out if she had just agreed to going out with him, regardless of her coming out as being very hesitant about it. “Yeah?” He grinned.

“Yeah~” She chuckled.

He sighed in relief. It had taken a lot of perseverance, but he was finally feeling like he was getting somewhere and making her open up to him. “How does Monday sound like?”

The redhead smiled tilting her head, “what you need a whole weekend to get ready?” She found it odd. It was Friday after all, and even if she didn’t have much experience in the dating department, she she was sure people usually went on dates during the weekend or on a Friday night.

Owen had an agenda of his own of course, Monday was the soccer match those damn people wanted to watch and he had made a hundred bucks to conveniently have their date go on simultaneously with the game. “No, I just want to take you somewhere and Monday’s less crowded.” He playfully shrugged hoping the excuse would stick and she’d buy it.

Claire nodded and took the fork away from him, “Okay. I guess we have a date, then.” She frowned at the sound of it. The redhead couldn’t remember when was the last time she had gone on a date, it made her nervous and excited in a way.

“On Monday.” He added.

The redhead nodded and cutting a piece of pancake she fed it to him, “I’ll check my schedule.” She teased.

“If you can block your whole afternoon starting at one, that’d be great.” He grinned.

Claire laughed and rubbed her forehead until she realized he was being serious, “wait, what?” The redhead honestly thought this would be after work; dinner and drinks — the usual.

“I’ll make it worth it, I promise.” He begged.

“You want me to take half the day off~” She narrowed her eyes.

“That’d be great!!”

“You are crazy.” She shook her head.

“C’mon!” He insisted.

Claire looked up and shook her head, she couldn’t afford that. She had things to do, important things to take care of. The redhead handled a very busy schedule and he truly had no idea what he was asking of her with that silly request of his.

“It’d be fun! Plus, when was the last time you took a day off? I’ll take you to town, we’ll have lunch, just hang around, and spend the afternoon away from all this.”

“TOWN!? That’s...the ferry ride takes over three hours!” She laughed. “And that’s only one way!”

“You are right, you’ll have to take the whole day off.” He figured, “problem solved.”

“No.”

“Fine, I’ll take the half day offer.”

“And come back at midnight?” Claire huffed.

“Well—“

“I never agreed to taking half day.” She reminded him with a shrug.

“Six hours?” He grinned.

“No.”

“Three?” He pouted, pleading.

Claire sighed and tilted her head, “I can do three.” She rolled her eyes, agreeing to that.

“Five and a half?”

“Owen~” She rolled her eyes.

“Three is perfect.”

“And I’m not getting off the island.” She assured him, pointing at him with the fork.

“Fair enough.” He nodded. “So Monday at one?”

“It’s a date.” She teased before pinching a piece of melon with her fork and brining it to her lips.

Owen smiled proudly, now all he had to do was figure out a way to keep her in the island as she requested, give her the best three hours of her life (so she’d agree to a second date), and away from the streets of the park simultaneously.

The most challenging part of it all was already conquered and that had boosted his confidence. She was giving into his charm and that was a very good thing not only for those soccer aficionados who were paying him, but for his wallet and his bike too.


	5. Chapter 5

Monday came along and the Jurassic World personnel was basically divided in two parts. There was this one large group who knew about the bet and were very excited for Claire’s first date with Owen; the reason behind their thrill was that their soccer team was playing that afternoon and if everything went according to plan, their guy would be meeting the boss outside the Innovation Center to take her far away from every television screen on Main Street and keep her distracted for the next couple of hours.

The other part was the small group in the control center where Claire was standing at the moment. She was instructing them to keep an eye on her and follow their every move through the security cameras. “If I look like I need you to get me out of this, you do it.” She pointed out at Lowery, “understood?”

They were laughing at how paranoid she sounded, “You need to chill.” He laid back on his chair and brought his feet up onto his desk which Claire immediately pushed back. He offered an apologetic smirk and shook his head, “I doubt he will kidnap you or kill you.”

Claire rolled her eyes, “it’s not that, dummy.” She sighed and nibbled on her lower lip. She was nervous, but didn’t want to admit it. “It’s in case... you know—“ she motioned.

He nodded waiting for her to continue since he had no idea what she wanted.

“Ugh. Just don’t lose trace and you get me out of there in three hours, or as soon as you feel I’ve had enough.”

“Yes, boss.” He agreed condescendingly. He went back to his computer and the live footage of the security camera outside the volcano-shaped building was displayed on it, Owen already waiting by one of the park’s Jeeps.

The redhead sighed and turning around on her heel she walked out of the room. She was wearing a crew neck peplum knee length black dress and matching high heels that day.

She hadn’t seen Owen since Friday, he apparently had weekends off, but he had kept the pretend interest through the weekend and would occasionally text her. She had tried to have him tell her what he had in mind for their date; so she could be dressed properly but he had insisted that it was a surprise and whatever she wanted to wear was fine. Well, he was wrong.

Claire made it to the front of the building, she fixed her long wavy red hair over her shoulders before walking towards Owen who was leaning against the Jeep.

His hazel eyes immediately took in how beautiful she looked, the contrast between her outfit and his made him chuckle. He was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, combat boots, and an olive shirt. The latter highlighted the green in his hazel eyes which was the first thing Claire noticed upon meeting him.

“It’s happening!” Lowery called out and after punching a few digits on his computer, the live footage from the security camera was displayed on a corner of the main screen at the front of the security room; the people in there grateful Claire had enabled them to spy on her. It was a sweet detail that she had asked one of them to keep an eye on her, this made them feel less guilty for doing something that they would have done regardless. Not to keep an eye on her, but just because it was something they were curious about. It wasn’t every day that Claire Dearing went on a date, after all.

It was the middle of a work day and so Claire didn’t pay much attention to what he was wearing. It was the style she had always seen him in and it didn’t bother her; at least he hadn’t shown up wearing board short or worse.

“You look beautiful.” He genuinely offered.

The compliment made her smile, “I like that color on you.” She offered a little nervous, biting on her lower lip.

Owen opened the Jeep passenger’s door for her and once she was inside, he closed the door. He then walked around and slid into the driver’s seat, “so beautiful...I almost feel sorry you are about to ruin your dress and shoes.” He teased while turning the car on, “and most likely mess your hair, too.”

The redhead quickly turned to look at him with a concerned look, watching him chuckle as he drove off. Hector and Miguel standing near by, holding a broom pretending to clean around. Once the Jeep was out of sight, they immediately let the rest know through their radios that the eagle had left the nest.

 

* * *

 

Lowery and company had done as asked and kept switching security cameras following that Jeep around, “Noooooo.” The brunette man started laughing incredulously while eating some chips. “Does this dude even know her?”

“Should we get her out of this?” Vivan was the only one who sounded concern.

“No! Come on! It would do her some good!” Lowery insisted while chewing on his chips.

“Ugh. She’s going to kill us when she comes back.” She sighed, her eyes on the screen.

“If she comes back out of this one.” He chuckled.

The live footage on their screen was the biggest red flag control center could have regarding their boss’s request to get her out of the situation if needed. This is exactly what she had meant when demanding they save her, she just didn’t know what it was and how to explain it because she didn’t have it in front of her, until now.

Claire was standing there, not moving trying to figure out if he was joking, if she was getting punk’d, or if Owen was serious, “I’m not getting on that.” She scoffed.

He had driven the Jeep far into the east side of the park, and stopped where the jungle got thicker and the park’s premises officially ended. Claire had said she wouldn’t leave the island, and they technically were still on it, just not in the park anymore.

“Yes you are~” He insisted before gently setting up a hand’s free walkie talkie on her left ear and then securing a helmet on her head, “Do you want the red one or the yellow one?” He asked with a smirk.

“I want you to take me back to my office, please.” She turned around and started walking back to the Jeep.

“Hold up, hold up.” He chuckled and stood in front of her blocking the door.

“I promise it’ll be fun.” He had his hands grabbing her arms and his hazel eyes on hers.

Claire sighed and looked over to the gas powered go karts waiting for them. She nibbled on her lower lip and smiled at him.

It had taken the redhead a few minutes to learn control the go cart’s wheel and speed. She was screaming through the walkie talkie while feeling the vehicle bumping under her.

“Are you alright back there?” Owen asked her through his own walkie talkie, he was leading the way through the thick jungle to make sure it was clear and safe for them to ride through it.

He had made her a map, which she kept between her thumb and the wheel as she rode her go kart behind his, “Yes, I’m okay!” She said loudly over the sound of the engine as she kept following him.

Owen raised a thumb up so she could see it and speeded up a bit, “careful with that tree.” He announced while turning to his left.

“Shit—“ It’s all he heard through the walkie talkie. Claire had tried to be careful, but she still ended up getting stuck between the roots. “Hold on...” she pressed the gas pedal the deepest she could without any outcome. She started jiggling everything and the smell of gas eventually announced she had drown the kart which immediately shut down.

“I’m on my way back.” Owen turned around and started looking for her.

At the site of his cart, Claire fixed her dress and pulled it down a bit. He parked his across from the roots and walked over.

“I think I killed it.” She grinned through her helmet.

Owen rested his arm against the kart and tried really hard to keep his eyes on hers, but that dress was inviting him to stare at her firm long legs, specially because of the way the go cart demanded for her to be sitting. He rubbed his forehead with his thumb, “it smells like you drown it.” He looked away.

“Should I get out?” She tilted her head.

“Um, yeah.” He nodded, it would be best, so he could think of something else besides the freckles on the inside of her thighs.

Claire slowly set on foot out of the cart and taking his hand she let him pull her out. She fixed her dress and stepped aside so he could try start the go cart back up.

He walked behind her, just to have the opportunity to check out her ass and tried start the engine back on. He had to pull out of the cord on the back a few times before it finally started up.

 

* * *

 

It was one thirty in the afternoon and soccer time back at the park. They had installed a TV in the employees cafeteria. It was the only place big enough for all of them to enjoy the game comfortably and away from the guest.

The cooking staff had made sure to have all sorts of snacks and drinks for everybody. Some of the employees had even worn a jersey on top of their uniform. They were celebrating and high fiving each other not believing they had been able to pull this off.

It brought them great satisfaction that they were about to watch their soccer game without any interruption.

Back at the control center, everybody was distracted watching Claire drive that go kart through the jungle. They couldn’t hear the conversation she had going on with Owen through the walkie talkies but they could tell that after riding for about an hour now she was doing pretty good. She was starting to go faster and tailing him just a couple of feet a far, the precaution distance so she could break behind him without crashing.

They had set the screen so they could have two security cameras simultaneously, one ahead of Owen and Claire so they could see what was to come for her.

“Oh, she’s going to love this!” They all chuckled noticing what was just a couple of yards ahead.

The redhead screamed feeling the go kart splashing water and her heels and legs getting wet as they rode across a small river, over the big rocks along its weight, “you owe me a pair of shoes, Grady.” She demanded not sounding as upset as he thought she’d be, he had been chuckling with his mic off so she wouldn’t hear him in anticipation of this.

“Copy that.” He turned the mic back on.

Owen stopped his go cart once he had a large body of water ahead of him. They had made it to the beach where he had spent his weekend putting something together for their date.

Claire stopped behind him and got out of her cart once she watched him do the same. Owen swept her off her feet and carried her bridal style over to the little tent he had installed for them.

He gently set her down and smiled at her, “now take those ridiculous shoes off.”

Claire pursed her lips and holding her balance from his shoulders, she did as told.

He then fetched for a towel and kneeled down, “c’mon.” He pat his lap so she could rest her foot there.

“Give me that.” She refused to let him dry her legs, she’d do it herself, same went with the mandatory sun lotion required to avoid end up looking like a lobster by the end of the afternoon.

 

* * *

 

The cafeteria was packed. Almost every single local employee was sitting there with a can of soda in their hands. Every single pair of eyes glued to the tv screen while they watched their team build up a play trying to score their second goal of the match. It was already the second half, and even if they were winning by one... every soccer fan knew that didn’t mean anything until the match was over.

“She’s asking for a second date!” Lowery started predicting. “There’s no way she’s not going out with this guy again.” He insisted. “Hell, I want to go out with me now.” He laughed.

“Are you kidding? That guy ruined her shoes!” One of the guys at the front reminded them.

“Wanna bet!? Lets bet...” They all agreed it wold be fun to keep track of Claire’s love life. Some of the guys went bring an old white board out of the back and they started listing everybody who wanted in.

“One rule though, none of us can intervene.” They agreed. Unlike the people in the cafeteria, they wouldn’t be directly playing with her feelings but just having some fun in tracking how her attraction for Owen would grow through time.

It took them just a few minutes to list the odds for Claire to hint or ask for a second date like Lowery was thinking she would, then there were those who thought Owen would be the one asking like it usually happened, and those who thought that ruining her shoes was a deal breaker.

Owen had used his Navy knowledge to build up a grill with rocks and other things he could find around. He had brought their food with him on his go kart and had spent the past half an hour grilling chicken for her.

In the ten months or so that he had been living there, he had picked into some cultural tendencies when it came to food. Things he watched the locals do at the food court and mostly the cafeteria. Things that had caught his attention and he had to try for himself; like the snacks with lemon and tajín he had prepared for her a few days back.

He had brought some tortillas and avocado sauce with him, as well as some chopped tomato, onion, coriander, and lemon. Once their chicken was grilled, he had taught her how to build her own tacos.

Those tacos had been so good that Claire had had like five which had left her full and asking him to wait a few before dessert.

She was sitting next to him on a blanket he had lied under the beach tent. Her legs stretched, her weight on her arms. He was sitting next to her watching the waves hit hard just a few yards away from them.

The redhead was looking away, watching a cute little crab make its way to his hole just at the end of their blanket. She slowly slid her one hand down and brushed his fingers with hers.

He looked up, noticing how she was blushing even if pretending to be distracted with the crab. She could feel her heart beating fast and loud against her chest when he reached out and let their fingers lace.

He tilted his head trying to find her eyes, he was wondering what was on her mind. She looked like she had something to say, but either didn’t know how to or wasn’t ready to do so.

Claire smiled and nibbled on her lower lip, she slowly looked his way before looking back down to their fingers, “Do you think—“ She giggled feeling her cheeks warm, “we can do this again?”

Owen smiled and nodded, “I would like that.” He agreed before he reached out and tucked some of her red hair behind her ear with his free hand. He had to check the date and time for the next match for this second date, but he was glad it seemed like a done deal.

Claire smiled softly and shyly tilted her head against his touch.

“Does that mean I’m worth it?” He teased her.

“Yeah~” She gulped admitting that.

Owen brought her hand to his lips and kissed it gently, “You are adorable.”

Claire giggled and adjusted on the blanket shifting closer to him and slowly rested her head on his shoulder.

He smiled down and brushed her bangs softly to the side before pressing his lips against the top of her head. He checked the time on his wrist watch, the soccer game should be over by then which meant he had accomplished every task; he had managed to keep her away from the park like he had been hired to do and also secured a date for the next match. 


	6. Chapter 6

Owen was more astute and intelligent than some gave him credit for, maybe at some point asking a hundred dollars per date seemed outrageous; but he knew this assignment didn’t just consist in randomly take Claire out once a week or at the janitors’ convenience. Women needed development and investment. He would have been crazy to think the redhead would keep interest in going out with him for the rest of the soccer season if he only showed up every now and then. This took dedication and time; he had to woo her and show interest every day and in different ways. His price was completely reasonable to his eyes and he was making every penny worth.

It had been three days since their first date and he had made sure to sporadically text her, let her believe she was on his mind. He also made sure she had hot fresh coffee, but strategically had avoided sitting with her for breakfast, even if this one was always waiting for her with Zara every morning by the time she made it to her office.

Claire was at her desk that morning, at this point her curiosity keeping her distracted while she tried sent a couple of e-mails. It was the first morning that she had come to work and no food or coffee had been left for her to have. It was until the screen of her iPhone lit up on her desk when she smiled and nibbled on her thumb.

“Hello pretty lady.” The notification read, letting her know the raptor wrangler on her mind was texting her.

She slowly grabbed the cellphone and leaning back against the rest she nibbled on her lower lip, “Hey you.” She texted back, blushing lightly.

“Hungry?” He immediately replied.

“Starving...” She let him know.

“Busy?” She pursed her lips unable stop herself from finding his one word texts charming.

Claire opened the calendar tab on her outlook and checked her appointments for the day, “not for the next hour.”

“May I come in?”

She giggled loud enough for Owen to hear her on the other side of the door, he missed the little smile that grew on his lips at the sound of it, “Yes, you may...” with that sent, Claire stood up from her desk and walked over to the couch.

Owen slowly opened the door to her office, he was carrying two plastic containers and their coffees. The redhead met him half way to help him bring the food in and settled it on the center table in front of the couch.

They sat next to each other and with her head tilted, she watched him open each container, the bigger one was keeping two thick spongy blueberry pancakes warm. He had chopped fruit in the other one and using one of the forks he poured it over their pancakes. He had been carrying the utensils (wrapped in paper napkins) and three little syrup bottles in the pockets of his front jeans. 

Claire couldn’t help smile the whole time, watching him finish the little details on their breakfast. Once he was done, Owen looked up and caught her smiling, he couldn’t help himself and offered a side smirk.

“Tell me beautiful,” He teased her, “what kind of man makes you smile bright?” He bumped his knee with hers playfully before bringing the food close and resting the container on his lap, Claire blushing hot red and chuckling while she shook her head.

“So what kind of contact do you have in the kitchen?” She tried to change the subject. He never failed to have them make them food.

“These are not from the cafeteria.” He shook his head, cutting a piece of pancake to feed her. “These are from La Cuisine de el Grady.” He totally failed to make that sound genuine, coming out as some French and Spanish hybrid.

She smirked and bit on her lip before opening her mouth for him to feed her the first bite. She moaned softly, they were incredibly good, “tell me~” the redhead mirrored his question from before, “should I feel special or do you cook for all the girls?” She let her green eyes meet his, the small butterflies she felt flapping uncontrollably.

“You first...” He murmured, demanding to have his question answered if she wanted hers, taking the moment to feed her another bite of the pancakes he had made for her.

Claire slowly leaned closer and took the bite, her hand gently reaching out for the fork and cutting a piece of the pancakes herself. She slid it over the syrup and pinched a piece of strawberry with the fork, bringing the bite to his lips.

He offered a cheeky smile and leaned closer, parting his lips to take it just to watch her pull the fork back from him and chuckle, “very funny.” He rolled his eyes playfully.

“I have a very underrated sense of humor...” She flirted with him, slowly bringing the fork close to his lips and pulling back just in time for him to miss again. At the third try, Owen softly held her wrist and drove her hand to feed him, making her giggle. Claire fixed her eyes on his for a second before letting them drop down to his lips; they looked glossy with syrup on them. She gulped softly looking down to their food and pinched some of the fruit to eat.

“I think it’s adorable.” He licked his lips and reached out for his coffee to take a sip.

She smiled to herself at the sound of that, “do you want to do this a...um....a thing?” She frowned before looking up and making eye contact with him, “have breakfast before your day starts?” She had been finding herself really enjoying his company and even if still nervous about it, she was forward and determined into getting what she wanted. That’s why she had asked for a second date, one she hoped he was still interested in.

“I would like that.” He nodded. “Yeah~we can definitely do that.” He agreed.

“Alright.” She smiled and reached out for her coffee to have a sip, “maybe tomorrow I can put something together for us.” She suggested, “Well not me—“ She shook her head, she couldn’t cook for her life, “unless you like burnt eggs and undercooked bacon.” She laughed.

“How did you know? That’s my favorite!” He teased her before he agreed to that arrangement. “At what time do you need me here?” He asked softly, letting his hazel eyes make her green ones shy away after he looked deep into them, his hand taking hers.

“How does seven thirty sound?” She figured she had to do this before her own day officially started, guarantee she’d have her schedule cleared.

Owen nodded, “in the meantime...” he started suggesting, “how about we go together tonight?”

“Tonight? Where?” She shook her head, not really following.

“To the costume party? The annual Halloween party?” He didn’t believe for a second she didn’t know about it, seeing how it was for employees and she was the operations manager.

“Oh.” She wrinkled her nose and sighed, “I don’t really go to that.” She chuckled nervously.

“Well, you are going tonight — as my date, what do you say?” He offered his most charming smile, the one he knew ladies could never say no to. The redhead looked up and let her fingers brush her hair while she thought this through, she wasn’t the type to be comfortable in this kind of gatherings, and she always managed to book something work related during the event so she could have a valid excuse to miss it.

Claire smiled and shook her head, that was a negative. “It’ll be fun! We get to use those cheesy couple costumes and make everybody jealous because we are hotter than everyone else!” He playfully nudged her. “I already have mine, I’m going as Hercules.” He explained. The redhead rolled her eyes and still didn’t give in.

“Disney...?” Claire disapproved.

“No, greek mythology.” He explained.

“So it isn’t about betrayal, it’s about rage?” Claire teased him. “Either way one of them ends up dead and.. spoiler alert; it’s always the girl.” She shrugged.

“Why don’t you like Disney?” He was more interested in that subject rather than getting in an argument about mythology he wasn’t even that familiar with — he just wanted to show off his ‘guns’ in the outfit.

“They are the competition.” She simply admitted. That’s how she saw it anyways, Disney Parks, even if there was not one of their properties near by, was still the competition. It was a matter of brand loyalty.

“No they aren’t; one sells fairy tales and you guys sell a life threatening experience.” He laughed.

Claire rolled her eyes, she had kept that park running without any major disaster for almost a decade. “Lets say you are a family man who managed to save for a thrilling vacation, you sit down with your wife and kids and you ask... ‘what park would you like to go to for summer break?’ What options would you give?”

“Hold on, are you the wife in this?” He offered a cheeky grin.

“No—“

“Then I would divorce that woman and then marry you.” He teased her, “‘where would you like to go to, honey?’” He asked playfully, his hand taking hers. “‘Disney or Jurassic World?’”

“HA!”

“Oh, shit.” He laughed falling for it and shook his head. “It’s okay, I’ll just ask someone else to be my Megara.” He shrugged.

At his words, Claire frowned. She felt something in her stomach tightening— was it jealousy? She shrugged trying to seem indifferent, “have fun.” She offered dryly. His hazel eyes trying to study her body language from the corner of his eyes. He watched her brush her fingers through her long red hair and smiled.

“I’m sure there are many out there who would love to come with me.” He started pushing it.

“Mmmhmm...” She stood up from the couch and moved back to her desk. She had better things to do than let this guy mess with her.

Owen followed her and sat on the edge of her desk, by her chair, “so should I pick you up at seven?” He noticed the glow in her face had vanished, his finger gently reached out for her chin and tilted her head to the side and face him.

“What for? Aren’t you going with one of your many girlfriends, Hunkules?”

He laughed and standing up headed back to the couch. He cleaned the table and gathered his things, the redhead not taking her eyes away from her screen. For some reason he thought it was amusing to leave her feeling like this, in his mind it was obvious he wouldn’t go find someone else. But Claire, honestly didn’t know what to think. “See you later, gorgeous.” He winked at her, the redhead moving her eyes away from the screen just to watch him find his way out of her office.

 

* * *

 

Wearing a very Disney inspired war skirt with a golden Olympus medallion in the center of his belt and a blue cape, along with a red headband around his forehead, the perfect gladiator sandals, and wrist bands... Owen gently knocked at the door of one Claire Dearing’s office. He was already in full costume, holding a longgarment bag and a back pack over his shoulder. He slowly made himself welcomed, surprising the redhead. It was only five in the afternoon.

She was quiet, her green eyes watching him from her desk, biting her lower lip. He looked sexy as hell and the realization of her brain going there made her clear her throat. He set the garment bag across the couch so her dress wouldn’t get wrinkled and rested the backpack down on the floor, brining all kinds of hair product, make-up, as well as a pair of sandals out of it and placed them on the table. “Time to get ready.” He smiled.

“What? Your girlfriends bailed on you?” She smiled playfully.

“Truth is, I don’t have a wig for them and I need a redhead so my costume can be on point.” He shrugged.

“I’m sorry, I can’t be your accessory tonight.” She sighed and went back to her work.

Owen laughed and inched closer, he kneeled by her desk chair and looked up at her from there, “you know I have wanted to go with you from the start and only you...” He grinned softly, stealing a smile from her, “—no need to get jealous.” He murmured.

Claire scoffed and rolled her eyes, “please leave.”

“Ah c’mon! I thought we were beyond that!” He chuckled referring at those times when she’d kick him out of her office. She gave him a look, and letting him take her hand on his, they walked to the waiting area, Owen pulling her chair along with them.

He set the chair near a socket and had her sit back down. Owen stood behind her and started to play his fingers through her long red hair, “What are you doing?” She pulled away, looking back over her shoulder.

“I’m going to do your hair...and make-up.” He smiled, “and if those two go well, maybe you’ll let me undress you.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

“You are not getting anywhere near my hair!” She shook her head, not addressing the last part of his statement, it had made her blush though and be glad her back was on him so he couldn’t see.

Owen didn’t say, but he had spent his lunch break watching YouTube tutorials on how to pull off that amazing high ponytail. He was a man of many skills, and it hadn’t taken long for Claire to realize he actually knew what he was doing while working with the hair dryer and giving her red hair the perfect amount of volume and noticing how tender and careful he was with it.

It had taken him almost an hour, but the hairstyle looked flawless, “where did you learn how to do this?” Claire admired her hairdo through the mirror he was holding in front of her.

“I had a lot of practice with the four girls back at the paddock.” He joked. Next, was her makeup. That had been another hour of tutorials but now that he had been able to pull off the hair, he was confident this one would be equally successful.

 

* * *

 

Claire’s dress and sandals had fit perfectly; with the help of Zara, of course. Owen had worked with the English assistant in getting the dress and shoe size and made sure the long waist complimented both the redhead’s breasts and hips. The only reason the woman kept teaming up with Owen from the start was because she had noticed her boss’s interest in him and could tell she already liked him a lot — like every other employee, she agreed that a boyfriend should do her some good.

The party was to take place outdoors, take advantage of their weather. They always decorated Main Street and that day the park closed earlier. By six thirty in the afternoon, every guest had already been escorted out so the cleaning team could work along with facilities and set up the tables for the special dinner the park treated its staff to, along with cleaning the street and setting up the dance floor.

Claire and Owen walked out of the Innovation Center hand in hand, the redhead was already regretting agreeing to this. She knew everybody would make a big deal out of her presence since she was always absent in this kind of event. She sighed and letting go of his hand, the redhead held onto his bicep. “Should we find a table?” He suggested, getting a nod as an affirmation. They walked down Main Street, passing Miguel and Hector who looked puzzled. They felt the need to have a private conversation with their guy.

The two Latinos walked behind them but had to postpone their thoughts once they got beaten by the Park’s owner who had come dressed as Batman.

“Claire!” Simon smiled, he already had a martini in hand. “It’s a pleasant surprise to see you here! And in costume!”

“Mr. Masrani, I believe you already know Owen Grady, our —“

“Of course!” He interrupted her, offering a handshake.

“Sir.” Owen nodded, greeting him back.

“I’m glad you decided to follow my suggestion and get—“

“It’s not like that!” She widen her eyes and wished for the Mosasaurus to jump out of the lagoon and swallow her.

“Heart eyes, Claire.” He pointed out at both her green eyes and smiled at her, “I’ve never seen them in you before.”

“I don’t have heart eyes or heart anything.” She assured Owen, feeling completely embarrassed that her boss was worse than any father when it came to humiliating their daughter in front of their crush.

Owen just smiled at her and jumped slightly once he felt their boss invading his personal space, “and you better not break her heart or I’ll find you...” Simon was serious, making the young man gulp. “Enjoy your evening, lovebirds.” He offered before walking pass them.

“I think he’s had more than he should.” She motioned with her hand about drinking and blushed lightly trying to find an excuse for his behavior.

“Speaking of, can I get you a drink?” Owen offered, his hand lightly caressing her naked freckled shoulder.

“I...I don’t really drink.” She confessed.

“I got you.” Owen winked, “be right back.”

Claire nodded and walked around looking for a table for them to take a couple of seats at. She found one near the sidewalk, closer to the volcano-shaped building and away from the speakers blasting the music their DJ was playing for the party.

“Hey, Owen?” Miguel and Hector approached the man, one on each side. The two Latinos were dressed as Wayne and Garth.

“Hey, what’s up?” The raptor wrangler casually asked while he waited for their drinks to be prepared.

“This one is on you, right?” They wanted to make sure this guy wouldn’t be charging them a hundred bucks at the end of the evening for something they hadn’t asked for. “The next match is on Monday.” They explained.

Owen sighed, “you mean if I’m going to charge you for bringing her here?”

The Latino men nodded.

“Don’t worry, this is included in the current agreement.” He rolled his eyes. These idiots really thought that just remembering her existent every soccer match would be enough.

“Okay. Okay.” They nodded, “and so are all those breakfast and all that right?” Latinos were used to trying to be scammed and they just wanted to make sure.

“Yep.” He confirmed, both his drinks ready so he took one on each hand, “I’d need that second date cash between tomorrow and Friday, by the way.” He added, “I need the money for you know, getting the stuff I need for the date.” He let them know before leaving them there and going back to his date.

Claire smiled upon his arrival to the table and let her eyes move down to the drink he had brought for her, “what’s in this?”

She tilted her head looking down at the darkish brown nectar with fruit in the bottom.

“It’s called Pimm’s,” Owen filled her in, “you’ll like it.” He promised.

The redhead nodded, trusting him on that and slowly gave it a sip. It tasted sweet and he was right, it wasn’t bad at all. “Thanks.” She smiled before giving it a full sip.

He had gotten a beer, not really a fan of those prepared drinks. He took a sip straight from the bottle and nodded, “so what are the chances of me persuading you to dance?”

“You’ll have to ask and see~”

He nodded and took another sip of his beer, watching her timidly enjoy her own drink. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, he just watched her anticipate for him to ask her properly to dance. He slowly started to chuckle and reaching out, he played his fingers with the ends of her hair.

“I don’t understand why you think this is funny?!” She said serious but couldn’t help start laughing.

“Because you look cute when frustrated and annoyed.” He admitted, his index finger twirling her hair.

She rolled her eyes and taking her drink, she took a sip from it.

He laughed, “Do you want to dance?” He asked with a cheeky smile.

The redhead moved her eyes over, “no.” She shut his request down. “Do you like candy? There’s supposed to be a candy bar somewhere.” She casually added, looking around before she stood up and fixed her dress.

Owen stood up behind her and placing his hand on the small of her back, he followed her to the other side of the street. They had a long table set up with several candy bowls. They held different brands of chocolate, hard candy, sweets, and even bubblegum. She grabbed one of the small containers for them and started to take some of the stuff she liked.

Using the tweezers, she dropped some dark chocolate and sour gummy worms in the container as well as Skittles and M&Ms, “ooh...I like those sour candy strips!” Owen requested, both his hands on her waist, keeping her close against him, looking over her shoulder from behind. The redhead did as requested and pinched a few of those for their container.

They kept walking down the line, both picking what they wanted to take back to the table. By the time they were at the end of the candy bar, Owen’s arm was around her waist completely, his hand resting on her belly. Her face an inch away from his when looking over, asking what other candy he wanted.

“I think that’s enough or we will have a sugar induced coma.” He laughed before they agreed to go back to their seats.

Once they were back to their table, Claire pulled her chair closer to his and smiled feeling him bring his arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer. He fished for a sour gummy worm in their candy container and fed it to her.

“I would have never taken you for someone who eats candy.” He admitted, watching her sucked slowly into the piece of dark chocolate he was now feeding her.

“I’m not.” She admitted, “after this piece I’m done for a whole year.” Claire shrugged and fishing into their container she grabbed a few M&Ms and Skittles, not really able to tell the difference in the dimmed lighting around them.

“No~” Owen turned his head away when she tried to feed him. “You are banned from feeding me.” He pressed his lips together.

“What? Why?!” She wondered, her body lightly resting against his, while his arm kept her close to him.

“Because you are a tease!” He laughed, his fingers once again unconsciously playing with the ends of her hair, “You may, but you can’t move.” He suggested.

“I can’t move? How am I supposed to do that?”

Owen shrugged.

The redhead smiled and pursed her lips, “open big...” she requested, tilting her chin up and watching Owen doing so, she gently threw one of the M&Ms into his mouth but failed and hit his cheek. He laughed and taking it with his hand he ate it.

“Okay, try again. I’ll try catch it this time.” He offered now that he knew what she was doing. Claire started throwing one after the other, Owen catching all of them with his free hand as she kept missing, hitting his chin and one of them almost hitting him in the eye. It was until the last try when she finally managed to feed him the Skittle like that.

She celebrated by throwing her arms in the air, Owen chuckling pulled her closer and gently kissed her cheek. The redhead slowly turned to face him and smiled back, her eyes dropping to his lips for a second before she found herself biting on her own.

“They finally started playing decent music, do you want to dance?” He asked once again, his fingers tenderly caressing her cheek.

Claire nodded quietly and simultaneously stood up with him, he took her hand and they walked down Main Street to the end, finding a spot by the lagoon’s railing. The song that started playing in that moment was Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’.

Owen held her close to him, his arm gently wrapped around her waist while he smiled at her. She rested one of her arms on his shoulder, her other hand holding his. The redhead took a second to look into his eyes, quietly admitting to herself that her boss had been right and she didn’t know any other way to look at Owen but with heart eyes.

“You~” She mumbled blushing and looking down to her feet, “You are the type that makes me smile bright.” She confessed, answering his question from that morning.

Owen frowned, it had been her words what snapped him out of the hypnotizing moment their eyes were sharing. Claire nibbled on her lower lip and stepping closer, she hid her face in the crook of his neck, “I have never cooked for any other girl.” He admitted with a light murmur, “so you should feel special.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, “You are—special.”

Claire smiled to herself, her fingers sliding through the hair in his nape, gently nosing close and taking in his scent.

“You look gorgeous tonight.” He felt like adding before tightening the grip around her while the song they were dancing to told the story of a lonely man in the middle of something that he really didn’t understand.


	7. Chapter 7

Claire was a woman who learned from previous experience, and from the few weeks she had known Owen for, she knew he was too unpredictable for her to try guess what he had in mind for their date. She would go crazy if she took a moment to think of the many possibilities and so she had avoided doing so.

After he had walked her back to her office that past Wednesday, they had agreed to go on a second date on Monday. She had once again required for them to stay on the island and he had given her his word on it. The only detail she had about their afternoon plans was that they would cook together. To the redhead, that didn’t mean anything. Knowing Owen, she was already picturing him taking her hunting so they could prey their own cow and then make it steak.. or it could be something simple like cooking chicken or preparing a salad. Regardless, she was going to be mentally prepared for the former.

The idea for them to cook together had come to Owen after the few conversations they had the mornings when it was her turn to be in charge of their daily breakfast and how they came from the hotel restaurant; the food there was of higher quality and she still wanted to impress him.

One date, a Halloween party, countless amounts of daily texting, and the handful of breakfasts they shared had the redhead slightly admitting to (only) herself that she was developing a deep crush on him. Was she going to act on it? Not just yet, and the control center room didn’t think she would either.

They had their whiteboard filled with odds and divided by dates. They were very optimistic about the relationship that was supposedly blooming between their boss and the handsome man. They had up to six dates listed with their odds so far. Each person making a bet on which one they thought would feature the inevitable first kiss.

All of them were putting a lot of thought into it, they had observed the couple at the Halloween party and they could notice how Claire was slightly begging for a kiss already, not to mention each day the redhead looked more smitten than the one before. The odds for her to be the one to kiss Owen first were higher by ninety percent of the people in the room. Ten still thinking this would go the traditional way and Owen would kiss her first — she wanted to kiss him, but hadn’t done so yet. 

When it came to the odds on which date they were betting on, no one was down for the second date; they knew their boss too well. Most people had them kissing by date five, some even dare push it to date six. The spying they hoped they could enjoy that afternoon would only be for observation, see if they were right or they needed to update their odds. 

A couple of guys were working on a tiny capsula microphone, this little bet was slowly getting out of control. They still were keeping their distance and not interfering, but they wanted to make sure they could listen to her date.. specially if they went to a place out of the security cameras’ range. 

The guys knew her daily routine and by the time the redhead was stepping into the room, they had already rolled their whiteboard out of her sight and knowledge. Lowery already had the microphone in hand and just needed to figure out a way to have her leave with it. 

Claire had changed into a pair of skinny jeans, a white lace tank top, a siam blue ruffled jacket, and a pair of silver flats. The entire security room noticed this and they quietly exchanged glances. They couldn’t blame her, though, after all she was going out with the same guy who had made her ride a go-kart across the island. 

After a few seconds, she felt Lowery’s fingers playing with the end of her jacket and slapped them off, “Sorry.” He pushed his glasses up and gave the people a thumbs up; he had successfully slipped the small microphone into the front pocket of her jeans. The appliance so tiny it would take a lot for her to feel it.

“What do you have for me?” The redhead requested the usual update before she could head out to her date. 

They didn’t have any highlights for her which helped ease her mind and go to her date knowing the park was having a good day with minimum incidents, just the usual like those damn kids always getting lost. She didn’t stay for more than five minutes, her intention was just to make a quick stop before meeting Owen whom had insisted for him to pick her up instead of Claire driving to his bungalow like she had suggested. 

The moment the redhead left, her microphone was amplified in the speakers they had for it and the camera covering the Innovation Center became the main one on the front screen. 

Owen had taken his vest off and had changed his shirt to a fresh one before meeting her. The last thing he wanted was to scare her off with the strong smell of his sweat. He was resting against one of the park Jeeps. He smiled at her once she stepped into his sight, meeting her on the building’s staircase “Are you ready?” He gently caressed her earlobe before running his fingers down her jaw, “beautiful~” He offered, running his arm around her waist so they could walk back to the Jeep. 

By one thirty, the man had already driven the redhead out of Main Street. Hector and Miguel, who were cleaning the glass building, high-fived and let the rest of their buddies know that it was soccer time.

 

* * *

 

“I know you said I owed you a pair of shoes...” Owen smiled, fetching a large shoe box he had on his patio table while walking her up to his bungalow. “So here.” He offered, letting go of her hand so she could grab the box and take a look. 

She smiled brightly, Claire loved shoes and wasn’t expecting for him to actually take her seriously about that. She sat on the stair case and eagerly opened the box on her lap, “Oh. Thanks.” She offered dryly. 

Owen laughed and sat next to her. He took her one foot and gently removed her flat before folding her jeans three quarters up her leg. Claire had found a pair of black fishing boots inside that shoebox. “I didn’t want to ruin yet another pair of your shoes.” He explained, slipping the first boot on and then did the same with the other leg. 

Claire sighed, scared to ask the reason why she would need these ugly boots in the first place. Owen stood up and taking her hand, pulled her up so he could fix the boots by bringing them all the way up to her mid thigh; her jeans safely tucked in them. “Gorgeous!” He offered, pressing a light kiss on her cheek. One that made her close her eyes and feel how her heart skipped a beat.

“I need you to help me with some stuff.” He requested guiding her around his bungalow. He had spent those hundred bucks not only on those fishing boots but also in some equipment he needed to build his own cast nest. He had spent his weekend busy putting it together and test running it.

“What’s that?” She asked, her eyes curious but her brain alerted.

“It’s a cast net, we are gonna use it to catch our own shrimp!” He shared with enthusiasm.

“I’m not fishing for any shrimp.” She laughed and took a step back. What kind of date was this? “Have you heard of dinner and a movie?” The redhead would be perfectly okay with something ordinary like that. 

“You can’t _fish_ shrimp, you need to _catch_ it.” He explained the term. “Schminner anda schmovie.” He rolled his eyes before offering her a playful smile and handed her an empty bucket and the pair of fishing boots he would be wearing. 

Once Owen had changed into his old pair of fishing boots and Claire had left her blazer on the railing up to his bungalow, they moved all this stuff to the lake. He let her fill the bucket with water and set it at the edge of the lake. Taking her hand, Owen slowly took a few steps into it with her. “See, nothing happens.” He teased her, the water up to their knees.

Claire offered him a death glare and nibbled on her lower lip. “Now what?” She wondered.

“You stay here, I’ll go get our cast net.” He nodded and slowly walked back out, taking him just a couple of minutes to be back with the large handmade tool. The redhead was distracted watching little fish swim about. 

Owen stood next to her and slowly showed her how to grab and throw the cast net. He did it first, with her observing. The man managed to throw it a few yards away and then taking her hand, they walked further into the lake and brought it back out. 

Claire could see the few shrimp wagging their tails, stuck in their cast net. She found it gross but smiled at him. They walked out to their bucket and Owen released them in there. 

Once back in the lake, Owen brought the cast net to her front and slowly slid his fingers down her arm to guide her. The redhead giggled at the cold and wet on his fingers and unconsciously leaned against him. She gulped, her fingers curving around the piece of net Owen wanted her to hold and he then worked on her other hand. She closed her eyes and nibbled on her lower lip, feeling his breath so close to her skin while he explained this to her was making her belly tinkle. 

“Ready?” He asked softly, his hands now tenderly resting on her forearms in order to guide her. Claire nodded and at the count of three, she threw the cast net as far as she could. It didn’t land as far as his did, but deep enough. 

She looked over her shoulder feeling his hands resting on her waist, and looked down to his lips for a second before brushing her forehead against his, “like that?” She murmured. 

“Perfect~” He nodded gently and slowly pulled back so they could go fetch their net. Claire had managed to catch five shrimps which made her feel accomplished. They high fived and walked back out so they could let them swim with the other ones back in the bucket.

Once they had about twenty shrimps, Owen figured they were enough for their lunch dish and headed back to his bungalow carrying all the tools with them.

 

* * *

 

“Ewwww...” Claire’s voice was clearly heard around the control center, their little microphone was working wonderfully even back at the lake. Everybody was laughing while Claire expressed her strong disgust at wherever was happening in that kitchen.

Having the redhead walk a few yards into the lake to catch shrimp was one thing, but having it cleaned? She was gagging, and now there was no doubt among the staff sitting there that she had it bad for Owen. Never would they have guessed that Claire Dearing would be standing in a kitchen, holding a knife, peeling and deveining shrimp. 

“C’mon! You are doing great!” Owen’s voice reassured her. They all needed to stop laughing so they could hear how things were turning, that was the downside of not having a camera to display the footage.

They could hear the redhead squeaking a cry, “ew ew ew...” she kept calling out. 

“Come here~” Owen said softly. 

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Claire demanded before the microphone went dead for a moment. 

“What’s happening!!!!?” They all wanted to know, “they probably gave up on the shrimp and left to make out on the couch.” Someone suggested. 

“Much better, huh?” They could finally hear Owen’s voice again, but no response to his question from Claire.

“Still...don’t ever touch me again!” She insisted. 

“It was just one shrimp! See, it doesn’t even smell!”

“OWEN, NO!” She demanded, “Ugh.”

The man laughed, “It goes away with lemon, I promise.” 

“You can’t touch me until proven.” 

“Here, now you try.” Owen suggested.

“Ooff..gross.” Claire kept complaining but as the minutes kept passing, she seemed to complain less until she eventually stopped. At this point, the control center staff was with their ears glued to the speakers, each of them imagining in their heads what was going on in Owen’s kitchen. They had learned they were cleaning their shrimp and getting it ready to be cooked, but they would have paid a pretty penny to be able to see her face.

 

* * *

 

Owen and Claire were now waiting the recommended ten minutes for their shrimp to be cooked through. During this time, they brought out of his fridge all the ingredients they would need for their lunch and get them ready. They were going to prepare their own ceviche, Owen had woken up early on Saturday morning so he could go to town and buy fresh lemons, limes, oranges, cucumber, and onions, among other things. He had gotten everything he needed for this date on that same trip. Those hundred bucks that Miguel and Hector had paid him for this date were more than enough, after all, the dollar was sitting at four hundred seventy five Costa Rican Colones.

Both the redhead and Owen had a chopping board and a knife each and now that their shrimps were cooked through, they grabbed ten each and started to chop them in half before pouring them in the now empty and cleaned pot they had used to cook them. He let Claire poured the lemon, lime, and orange juice into it and stir while he added the small squares of cucumber, onion, and serrano chiles they had chopped earlier when waiting for the shrimp. Now they had to let it refrigerate for an hour.

“Do you want a beer?” Owen offered, hearing her washing her hands in the sink.

She nodded and met him by the fridge, leaning her body against it and keeping her eyes on him. Owen opened a couple of bottles, and handed her one. Upon taking a sip from his, he closed the fridge and inched closer. He offered a smile, letting his eyes fall on hers and taking in the intensity she was staring back at him with.

In the mean time, a large group of Latinos were gathered in the cafeteria watching their soccer football match. Their team was playing outstanding, making every penny they kept investing worth it. 

The kitchen staff had rearranged their inventory so they could do without some stuff for the rest of the month and have them for the game; like sodas and snacks the park provided them with. However, unlike the previous game, they weren’t giving them for free. They needed money so they could keep paying Owen, and therefore each of the people engaging in this didn’t mind paying five dollars for a coke and three for a bag of chips and some nuts. It was overpriced, but it was all for a good cause.

Owen was slowly brushing his fingers on the palm of Claire’s hand. She had them facing down, and couldn’t keep herself from giggling nervously. The man fixed his hazel eyes on her green ones, staring deep into them when he abruptly tried to slap the back of her hands with his. Claire was fast, and managed to pull back just in time before he could slap them. She laughed and waited for him to position his hands so she could take her turn. 

The redhead crossed her legs, she had changed back into her flats the moment they had come back from the lake. Owen gently tilted and brushed his knee against hers, his body unconsciously leaning down a little forward following hers like a magnet as she slid against the back rest. 

She fixed her eyes on his and smiled playfully before biting on her lips. Claire started to softly brush her fingers against the rough palm of his hands and before she could pull them back to try slap him, Owen curled his fingers around hers and took them hostage. They both laughed before he let go and asked her to try again, there was no time for that though ...the timer they had set as a reminder had started ringing; it was time to resume their cooking. 

Once back in the kitchen, Owen brought their pot out from the fridge. Claire was ready to pour the tomato, avocado, and cilantro they had chopped into it. Owen then added some oil and salt. Now they had to wait another thirty minutes before they could eat. It looked great, Claire couldn’t wait to try it out. “This is the first time I have cooked anything!” She was feeling a little proud about the accomplishment.

Owen smiled and started gathering all the dirty dishes and utensils so they could wash them while they waited, “and the best ceviche you’ll ever have at that!” He encourage her.

“I mean, even if all I did was chopped some vegetables.” She waited in front of the sink for him to drop everything there.

“Also, peeled and pulled little black guts out of shrimp!” 

“I guess I did go fishing for our own shrimp as well, and that counts...right?” She smiled letting some water fall over their dirty dishes.

“Catch shrimp.” He kept correcting her, his lips gently nibbling her naked shoulder from behind, missing the blush that grew in her cheeks. Claire also felt her chest tightening and her stomach flip. 

She gulped, “right~catch.” She shook her head. She was completely under the spell of his charm, and in that moment she realized it would be hard to keep restraining herself from acting on it.


	8. Chapter 8

“What’s that?” The redhead immediately noticed the misplaced whiteboard behind Lowery. It was an unusual time for her to show up at the control center and so they hadn’t bother putting it away. They took those down time lapses to bring it out and update it. 

Not many of them had changed their bets, Lowery still believed Claire was going to be the one kissing Owen first and she’ll do it by date six. The couple had gone golfing for their third date, thankfully they had the surveillance cameras to spy them. It was very evident in the redhead’s body language that she wanted for Owen to just kiss her already, and his body language while very touchy-feely didn’t have the same urgency. The brunette man was convinced that by date six, Claire would have had enough and get what she wanted on her own.

Vivian was on the same page, she also thought Claire would eventually give in and kiss him, but was inclined to think that their boss wouldn’t be able to wait that long and will do it on their fifth date. A few of them were convinced that Claire would lead him on and do the whole work but wait for him to close the space and do it.

“That’s a—wait what are you doing here?” Lowery wasn’t trying to change the subject, he was really curious.

“I told you, I’m leaving early tomorrow to town so I came to make sure the park will survive without me for one day.” She explained, her eyes scanning the board. “Are you guys placing bets?” She could tell those were odds next to each of their names. Claire crossed her arms against her chest and her green eyes fell on the young man for a few seconds, “you know it’s against policy to bet money—“

“No...no... not money! Plus, that’s...that’s just the times we have win and lose playing... tic—tac—toe?” He knew he couldn’t sell that one.

“What are you guys—“ Claire gasped after reading how each column was divided by date with an odd of kiss/no kiss. “YOU are BETTING on the possibility of OWEN and ME KISSING?!” She was blushing, upset, even a little embarrassed, and she could not believe they were doing this.

“Are you mad?” Lowery frown and hid his head behind his arms.

“How do you even know if we haven’t yet?” She curved her eyebrow, it was until something caught her attention on the screen at the front when it hit her. “YOU HAVE BEEN SPYING ON US?”

“Spying is a big word~” Lowery chuckled nervously.

“What else have you been doing?” She was by now standing right beside him, looking down on him with this intense glance that he felt could cut him in half.

“We—“ He looked back at his team members who were all shaking their heads. “We might have been listening too...” He shyly confessed.

“WHAT!?”

“Just a little bit, woman.” He sheltered his face with his arms, “please don’t kill me!”

“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!?” Claire was fuming. She turned to look back at the board and covered her face with her hands. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t fire you, ALL OF YOU!”

“We are sorry?” He offered timidly with a smirk.

The redhead had her back on him, she couldn’t keep her eyes off that board. She was taking advantage of it maybe there was something she was missing because she was dying to kiss Owen and he just wouldn’t do it. Maybe they had caught something she had missed and it was hiding somewhere in those odds. She noticed all of them were down for either the fifth or sixth date and quietly smiled seeing some of them did believe he was to kiss her first.

“What’s the bet!?” She demanded to know.

“The losers get a dare...” He lied. He had already admitted they weren’t playing for money which had a serious disciplinary process (not that it matter anymore).

“I want in.” She turned to look at him.

Lowery looked around not following.

“PUT ME DOWN, hurry up!”

“Yes, Ma’am.” He grabbed the marker and added her name to the bottom of the board and waited for her to tell him what she would be betting on.

“I’ll be the one kissing him and I’ll do it tomorrow.” Claire rested her hand on her belly, for some reason saying that made her nervous. Once Lowery put her down for that, she opened her camera phone and snapped a photo of the board. “None of you get to change your odds.” She scanned the room with her finger.

“Um, Claire?” Lowery raised his hand.

“WHAT?”

“You’ll have to do it here in the park where we can witness or it doesn’t count...” He managed to explain, terrified of her.

“I’ll do it under your nose.” She assured him. “I hope you enjoy your dare, losers.” She turned on her heels and headed to the exit.

“And PLEASE clean your work place.” She called out before leaving.

 

* * *

 

After a little over a month of dating, Claire had finally agreed to leave the island for a date in town. It was Saturday and the soccer game for that afternoon was one of those classics that had every aficionado biting down on their nails. The fact that Claire would be off the island all Saturday made the cleaning staff feel like they had more freedom than the past three games and they were going to take advantage of both el clásico and the fact that Claire would be gone until late that night.

The redhead and Owen had agreed to meet in front of Starbucks at six in the morning that day. He had made it before she did and was waiting with some coffee for her. The man smiled once he saw her walking through the still empty streets of the park and walked over to find her.

“Hi, sorry I’m late.” She blushed lightly. Claire had changed at least three times before agreeing on wearing three quarter jeans and a beige and brown double singlet. She knew they would probably be walking a lot so left the heels behind and wore a pair of brown sandals. Owen was wearing a pair of jeans and his Navy hoodie. The thing about Central American weather was that it got a little cold in the morning before the sun came out and then it got chilly at night at around seven thirty.

“Are you okay?” He tilted his head, it was evident she was a little nervous. She might have made it seem like she had bet on kissing him today just to fuck with the people at control center, but that had only been an instrument she used to enable herself and just kiss him.

“Yeah. I—um—I contacted the ferry to wait for us, so...” She nibbled on her lower lip. “We are still on schedule.

“Are you sure you don’t want to use a chopper? We would be there faster and I know you can have one ready in half an hour.” He insisted. Once she had so easily agreed to go to town, Owen had suggested they used one of those to take them and pick them up but she had turned that idea down.

“No.” She shook her head looking down, “No chopper, the ferry is fine.” She tilted her head.

“Okay. I won’t bring it up again, I promise.” He ran his arm around her waist and walked with her toward the jeep that was waiting for them. This time around, the redhead didn’t slide into the passengers seat but sat with him in the back. She leaned against his shoulder, smiling softly to herself feeling his arm hugging her close to him and his fingers playing with her wavy long hair.

“Can I ask why, though?” It really made no sense. It wasn’t like the choppers were being used at the moment and it would be back in fifteen minutes tops. “You can tell me, it’s not like I’ll get mad or anything.” He teased her pressing a soft kiss against her temple.

“You promise you won’t make fun of me?” She giggled, muffling against his chest.

“I promise~” He nodded.

Claire sighed, tilting her head up and fixed her eyes on his, “I’m scared of flying.” She casually admitted, looking away while the jeep drove them out of the park and to the ferry landing. 

Owen nodded to acknowledge her confession and smiled softly. The driver got the back door for them and Owen stepped out first before helping her out.

Back at the park, Miguel and Hector got the message that Claire had board the ferry and now it was time for them to get everything ready for their game. This one didn’t start until noon, so they still had six hours to go...but this time they were going big, and needed time to prepare.

The first thing was to have the IMAX Theater out of service from the moment the park opened its gates. It wasn’t like the guest would miss it, all it did was run a fifteen short film with the park’s history. The technicians were working on setting it up for the game while the rest of the personnel were to believe they were working on the malfunction. 

A big group of the employees was also working on selling tickets for the game, twenty dollars each. That would give them enough money to pay Owen for the rest of the Champions League. Every local willing to pay that price to watch Real Madrid vs Barcelona in an IMAX screen.

 

* * *

 

Once off the ferry and into town, Claire and Owen had found a little cycle rickshaw terminal and agreed to pay the ride over to the local street market about ten block from there. They adjusted on the seat and once again, Owen didn’t lose time to bring his arm around her shoulders.

“Buenos días, ¿para donde el viaje?” The young man to be riding them around wondered.

“Buenos días,” Claire greeted him back, “queremos ir al mercado a diez cuadras.” The redhead smiled and nodded, Owen looking her way with no idea what they were talking about.

“Son ochocientos colones.” The young man gave his fee for the trip.

“¿En dólares americanos?” Claire frowned apologetically.

The young man nodded, they had their special fee for tourists, “Cinco dólares.”

“What!?” She looked over to Owen who was already taking a five dollar bill out of his wallet, “no wait. He is ripping you off!” The redhead shook her head. She knew that the first amount given was roughly about one dollar and thirty cents.

“But we are tourists, it’s fine!” Owen shrugged and offered the guy the five dollar bill.

Claire snatched the bill before the young man could get to it, “No we are not! I don’t know about you... but I’ve been living here for over ten years!” She was offended this local douchebag was trying to play smart with her. “Cinco dólares pero nos esperas y nos llevas a nuestra siguiente parada...” Claire negotiated with the guy, which was only fair, after all the five bucks covered almost four trips.

The guy rubbed the back of his neck and nodded his head. Claire handed him the money and once the guy started pedaling, she adjusted against Owen’s arm.

“You...speaking...Spanish~sexy.” Owen teased her, brushing his finger down her cheek.

 

* * *

 

“You must be hungry.” Owen frowned apologetically. By the time they made it to the street market, it was around ten in the morning and they had only gotten a light breakfast on the ferry.

“You’ll be surprise on the amount of breakfast I had skipped before we met.” She nibbled on her lip, hearing him chuckle at that. He reached out for her hand and hold it as they kept walking through the different stands along the street.

Claire slowly adjusted her hand and let her fingers intertwined with his, she could feel her heart beating slightly faster as she did. He looked down and smiled, letting his thumb caress her hand a little bit. “Come on, let’s take a look at those...” One of the stands was selling hand crafted jewelry. Claire nodded and followed him there.

The two of them started to look around. Claire took a pair of tiger eye clip-on earrings and playfully put them on him, “you should get them!” She giggled watching him blink and pursed his lips at her. “They contrast your eyes~” She added softly, her fingers brushing his hair to the side. Claire felt her eyes falling on his lips for a second before they looked back up.

Owen broke eye contact and gently took a gold-turquoise neckless from the table. He inched closer, the redhead finding his eyes again. She caught herself biting on her lower lip and gulping softly when feeling him this close. He tenderly clipped the necklace around her neck and let his fingers fix her hair over her shoulders.

Claire couldn’t stop herself from allowing her fingers to brush his forearms around her neck. She hadn’t begged him for a kiss more than she was doing right now. Her green eyes were penetrating and she had inched closer, but he either didn’t take the hints or simply wasn’t into it. It frustrated her to like him this much and not know how he felt about her.

“This looks beautiful on you. Your eyes are so hypnotizing and with turquoise complimenting them...lethal.” He murmured, stealing a soft smile from the redhead. “¿Cuantas dollars?” He turned to look at the lady, his Spanish wasn’t the best but he was sure the woman would understand him if he tried.

“Veinticinco dólares el juego con los aretes.” The lady explained how the necklace was part of a set and handed him the gold-turquoise dangle earrings.

Owen nodded and set them up on the redhead’s ears, “You are so beautiful~” He genuinely offered. “I think that’s my favorite color on you.” He added before he pulled his wallet out and gave the lady thetwenty-five dollars she was asking for the set. He then took the clip-on ones off and set them back on the table.

“Gracias.” He offered before intertwining his fingers with Claire’s and kept their walk through the street market.

By noon, Owen had been already swallowed by Costa Rican merchandise. He had tied his hoodie around his waist and was now wearing a white t-shirt with a colorful design and logo that every tourist around seemed to be wearing as well. He also had a blue baseball cap featuring the Costa Rican football soccer team logo on his head.

Football soccer was something big in the country all around, not only a fever the one group of employees back in the island caught and Claire was noticing this while they kept walking through the busy streets. Every radio around had switched from playing that noise they called reggaeton to put the game on. She slowly let go of Owen’s hand and walked across the street over to a household appliances store. She tilted her head and move through the crowd of freeloaders standing in front of the television displays.

The match had just started and she could sense the excitement and even anxiety among the fans around her. She looked around and noticed most locals were either wearing a blue and red jersey or a white and black one, a detail she hadn’t paid attention to until now.

She pulled her iPhone out from the front pocket of her jeans and once she had dialed Zara she rested the iPhone against her ear, “No cellphones~” Owen sang from behind her and taking it away from her he hung up. “I thought you hated soccer...” He teased her, hugging her from behind and nosing into her neck while he pushed her cellphone down on the front pocket of his jeans.

“Yeah~lets get out of here, maybe get some lunch?” She frowned before letting her eyes fall on his.

“Good idea.” He nodded, slowly turning her around and leading her through the crowd back to the street.

They had found a little local butcher shop where to have lunch. These were very popular, they did not only sell raw meat by the pound but they also offered a few tables outdoors where people could enjoy a fresh out of the grill steak or pork rinds.

Owen and Claire were sitting at a red plastic table and chairs set with a large Coca Cola logo on it. He had order a beer and was drinking straight from the bottle, Claire had gone with the natural juice the owner of the place had suggested. The redhead was laughing out loud trying to teach Owen how to pronounce ‘chicharrón’ which was what they had decided to order.

Costa Rican tradition was to cut them in little pieces and made somewhat a taco with them, corn tortillas were used for this, people would also squeeze some lemon there before eating them. The person was back with their order of chicharrones before Owen could even have the first syllable down.

“ _Chi_ — as in _chi_ ldren.” Claire laughed.

Owen smirked and licked his lips, “children, I can say children.” He nodded and gave her that first syllable with no problem.

“Second syllable; _cha_.” Claire enunciated, “as in _cha_ - _cha_.” She moved her arms around to the little rhythm making him laugh.

“Sorry I didn’t get that, how?” He teased her trying to have her do that little demonstration with the dancing again.

The redhead rolled her eyes and had him say both syllables together, which he did and even if it made her giggle he was doing a good job. “Third syllable is ‘ _rron_ ’. As in _run_ but roll your tongue.” She nodded so he could try.

“Chi-cha-ruuuun!!” He smiled. The redhead nodding, casually pulled her chair closer to him.

“Yeah. Not bad.” She laughed, flirting a little with her eyes.

Owen had pulled their plate close and started cutting their chicharrones in small squares, “what’s my prize, gorgeous?” He teased before putting some of the little pieces of meat on a corn tortilla and squeezing some lemon on it, “all this hard work can’t be unrewarded.” He gently offered her that first one and started working on his.

Claire looked down on the food and licked her lower lip, “I don’t know, it can be anything really~” She looked up, her eyes once again on his lips before slowly making eye contact with him.

“How about we share one of those Chocolate-dipped frozen fruit they seem to sell everywhere for dessert?” He suggested.

“It’s a done deal!” She nodded and bit on her tortilla.

 

* * *

 

By six in the afternoon, the temperature had gone down and the sun was starting to set. Claire and Owen were carrying a few shopping bags, most of them were his and stuff he had gotten just for the heck of it. They found another of those cycle rickshaw and asked to be taken back to the ferry landing, the park’s ferry was to leave in twenty minutes and it was the last one for the day so they couldn’t afford miss it.

Claire slid onto the seat, letting Owen set their shopping bags on it and secure them so they wouldn’t fall. He caught her rubbing her arms trying to keep herself warm so he untied his Navy hoodie from around his waist. Once on the seat with her, he gently reached out and helped her into it. He pulled it down from the ends and Claire pulled from the sleeves.

“Thanks~” She smiled, taking in his scent and feeling those butterflies flapping inside her.

“Pura vida!” He motioned for the guy to ride them to go.

“That’s not how it works!” She laughed, snuggling against Owen after feeling his arm pulling her closer to him. He had learned Costa Ricans used that slang for almost everything and he liked how it sounded. He laughed and kissed her forehead.

“¿Puedes ir más rápido? Nuestro ferry es dentro de quince minutos.” Claire tapped the shoulder of the guy pedaling them around. He really needed to hurry or they will miss their ferry.

“No. Tenemos regulaciones...” He pointed out at the transit guideline on the back of the rickshaw.

“Fuck.” Claire shook her head and leaned back onto the rest completely defeated.

“Hold on, I got this.” Owen squeezed her hand in reassurance and leaned forward tapping the guy again, “¿hablo Ingles? He wondered.

“Lo entiendo pero no lo hablo.” The guy shook his head.

“He understands but doesn’t speak it, which MAKES ZERO SENSE!” She addressed that last part towards the guy, she couldn’t stop checking the time in her wrist watch.

Owen nodded, “I’ll give you a hundred bucks for your bike, dude. What do you say?” He pulled his wallet out from the pocket of his jeans and showed him the brand new bill he had gotten from Miguel and Hector the day before.

Claire tilted her head and frowned, he was crazy, “how can you afford spending a hundred dollars just like that!?” She chuckled, “don’t be silly, c’mon. I’m sure they’ll wait for me—for us.” She nodded.

“A hundred bucks, amigo! Pura vida!” Owen insisted. “You can even recover it at the ferry landing!” He pointed out.

The guy nodded and taking the bill from Owen he stopped pedaling and got off the bike. Owen didn’t lose another minute and jumped off the back so he could get on the bike, and immediately started pedaling as fast as he could. The redhead on the back screaming and holding close from the seat.

 

* * *

 

Owen and Claire walked up the Innovation Center holding hands. She looked up to the security camera behind them, and then brought her attention back to Owen. She suddenly grew very nervous. She pulled from the sleeves of his hoodie, hiding her cold fingers under them before resting her hands on his chest and slowly caressing it.

“I wish you’d let me walk you home.” He offered softly, looking down, trying to find her eyes which were shying away from him.

Claire shook her head, “I have to go up to my office and catch up on some things.” She frowned still looking down. She bit on her lower lip and feeling her heart beating fast against her chest she inched closer, her hands still on his chest. “I—hadn’t been out of the island in years...I had a really good time.” She gulped finally letting his hazel eyes look into her green ones.

“I had a really great time too.” He offered, reaching out and caressing her arm gently, “You can keep the hoodie, I—“ He shrugged with a light smile.

“I wasn’t thinking on giving it back.” She chuckled nervously.

“Good, it’s yours.” He smirked, letting his fingers brush her red hair and tucking it behind her ear.

Claire closed her eyes and tilted her head against his touch. She slowly opened them and let them fall on his. She sighed lightly and slowly leaned in.

“She’s going for it!” The entire control center was still sitting there at nine thirty at night. “She is going for it!” They were at the edge of their seat.

Claire Dearing had never wanted something so bad in her life and she had never been so nervous about this before, either. She felt his fingers playing with her hair and that only enabled her to step closer and get that kiss she had been craving for. The redhead gently brushed her lips against his and slid her hands up around his shoulders.

In that second the entire control center went quiet and their expressions changed, “ouch...” Someone couldn’t contain and bluntly let out.

“I don’t want to hurt you...” Owen murmured softly after pulling away before she could kiss him.

“Hurt me?” Claire echoed puzzled, feeling her heart sinking into her stomach making her feel sick. Her eyes were confused and a little hurt while staring into his, “This is so humiliating...” She chuckled brushing her forehead with her finger and stepping away from him.

“Humiliating?” He gently reached out for her hand but she pulled it back. “It’s not like I’m going to make fun of you.” He frowned.

She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest, “Goodnight, Owen.” She looked down and without looking back rushed into the building and up to her office.

Owen was left behind on his own, he kicked his shoe against the ground and grabbing his shopping bags, he started to walk his way back to his bungalow.

It was a long walk but he needed it so he could clear his mind up.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to my editor-in-chief SarynotSary <3

“What have you got for me?” Claire sighed, her arms crossed against her chest, with a face that threatened people to not mess with her that day. 

She was standing in the Control Center, that stupid whiteboard by her side while she asked her people to give her the usual report on how things were around the park. 

It was the morning after her embarrassing failed attempt at kissing Owen. Lowery, Vivian, and the rest of the analysts in the room were quiet, looking back at her. 

They managed to go through their reports without any inconvenience. It would have been a terrible day to mess up, or for the park to pull off something that would just trigger the ticking bomb in those green eyes. 

Once she heard what she wanted to hear, Claire merely nodded and turned on her heels, ready to leave, but a very shaky voice stopped her. “Claire?” Lowery called out. 

“WHAT!?” She warned, it had better not be about that stupid bet she was very aware she had lost, because she was not in the mood to deal with that kind of stupid shit.

“Um... about your dare...” He grinned. He hunched his shoulders, expecting her to beat the crap out of him for brining that up. 

The redhead sighed loudly and turned back around, “that stupid bet was not even real.” She rolled her eyes.

“It was real when you tried to mess with us and join in!” He tried to defend their point of view here. She had lost on her own terms. 

Claire narrowed her eyes and shot him a death glare. “What is it?” She looked away and shook her head. 

One of the guys from the front row threw Lowery a bag, and he handed it to her. 

Claire rubbed her forehead and peeked inside. She chuckled and pulled out a white shirt from it. She threw the bag back at Lowery and let the shirt hang from her fingers. “No.” She shook her head and, crumpling the shirt up in a ball, she threw it back at her employee. “There’s no way I’m wearing that!” She shrugged. 

“But you lost!” He pointed out at the whiteboard. Claire followed his hand with her eyes and, stepping close to the board, she grabbed the cloth and wiped the whole thing. “HEY!!” Lowery complained. 

“And you stop that!” She hissed. “Who told you that it was okay to watch me like that!?” 

“You did!” He recalled. 

Claire rolled her eyes, her arms once again folded against her chest. After a second of silence, she sighed and turned back to Lowery. It was very evident in her eyes that she was not only humiliated, but hurt and confused. 

“Claire?” He looked down at the shirt and then back to her eyes. “He is a jerk.” The brown haired man said softly, not wanting to add anything more, since the redhead was still his boss and it would come out as inappropriate. “And we are sorry for this whole thing. We thought it would be fun, but we are putting an end to it.” He added, before the rest of the room nodded and mumbled. 

They managed to make her smile a little and she then sighed, looking down at her shoes. “Give me that.” She snatched the shirt away from Lowery and, giving a second glance, she took a deep breath. 

It was a white Mickey Mouse shirt. The perfect consequence for Claire for having lost her bet, since she had always been very open about how much she disliked Disney, and more specifically Disney Parks, since they were the competition. It wasn’t personal, it was just business, and that is why her belief on that subject made wearing that shirt around Jurassic World very ironic. 

 

* * *

 

She had tied a knot on the back of the shirt so it fit better, also glad she was wearing a stretch denim blue skirt on that Sunday morning, so her half-forced outfit could look at least a bit decent.

Claire was leaving the Innovation Center on her way to meet up with the maintenance manager, when a very familiar voice called out her name. She looked up from her cellphone; Owen was walking towards her, motioning to meet up back inside the building. It was a busy Sunday at the park and it would be a little difficult for them to talk among the crowd of guest transiting through Main Street. 

The redhead sighed and shook her head at him, however still found herself turning around and heading back to the Innovation Center. She e-mailed the manager she was supposed to meet with and rescheduled their meeting on her way to the elevator. Once the doors opened, she stepped inside and waited for Owen to join her. 

She slowly rested her head against the wall and released a sigh. Her green eyes turned to face him and narrowed at him. She instinctively reached out for the close button and, nibbling on her lip, she looked away from him. 

“C’mon...!” He threw his hands in the air, watching elevator close the doors in his face and go up. She watched him start running up the stairs through the glass wall and frowned. 

After the couple of stops the elevator did, he had managed to make it to Zara’s reception before Claire. He was a little out of breath, but he should recover soon. 

Claire stood firm and tall, fixing her skirt and her hair over her shoulders before she walked out of the elevator. “What can I do for you, Mr. Grady?” She addressed him without making eye contact, reaching instead for some paperwork Zara had for her.

“‘Mr. Grady?’” He echoed laughing, what was with that? Owen could tell she was upset, but he was glad she at least wasn’t ignoring him. It gave him some hope that not everything was lost. “Oh . My . Disney.” That Mickey Mouse she was wearing distracted him for a second, that was definitely one of the last things he thought she’d ever wear. 

The redhead still didn’t say anything or made any eye contact with him. She did however instruct Zara that she didn’t want any sorts of interruptions before she walked into her office, allowing Owen to follow her. She closed the door behind them and instead of sitting on the couch like she usually did, she sat at her desk.

“What’s with the Mickey Mouse shirt?” Owen just had to ask. He stood in front of her desk, figuring she needed some space. 

Claire frowned lightly and looked down at her top. She pursed her lips and looked away, shrugging. “What do you want?” She asked softly, still not making eye contact, her eyes looking out the window. She could see the mosasaurus from there, they were just a couple of months from having that asset introduced to the public. 

“I came looking for you earlier for breakfast but you weren’t here.” Owen shrugged, slowly inching around her desk to stand by her side.

Claire watched her fingers slowly play with her leather chair’s armrests and shook her head. “I couldn’t today.” She explained, “I would have texted you, but...” she shrugged, her green eyes slowly looked up finally meeting his, “But I didn’t want to hurt you.” 

Owen felt the burn but decided to shrug it off. “How about we have some right now? I’m sure you haven’t eaten yet.” 

Claire snorted. 

“I’ll be right back. It will take me five minutes...please?” He begged, gently reaching out for her hand but Claire slowly pulled it back. 

She rubbed her forehead and shook her head. “Five minutes, Owen, and I’m gone.” She stated sternly. She even pulled her cellphone out and set the timer for him, to let him know she was serious about this. 

The man nodded and, hurrying his step, he left her office, leaving Claire watching every second ticking on her iPhone screen. 

Owen was back three minutes and a half later. He had at least four kinds of those Marinela snack cakes from a vending machine and two single-serve milk cartons. He set it all on the table in front of her couch and looked up at her. “Would you please join me?” He asked softly, a smile on his face. “I brought your favorite!” He showed her the Pingüinos package. 

Claire hated this. She hated feeling so confused about his motives and at the same time so attracted to his charm that she couldn’t say no. She nibbled on her lower lip and for the first time in over a month, Owen could see that hesitation back in her eyes. He frowned, “Okay...I’ll meet you there.” He nodded. 

He picked every thing up and moved it over to her desk, green eyes watching him adjust the papers she had there to the side to make room for their breakfast. “Strawberry or chocolate?” He smiled, holding both cartons. 

Claire sighed and slowly reached out for the chocolate milk. He pulled back, not letting her take it so easily, which made her look up at his eyes and tilt her head. “Allow me~” he murmured, before he poked it open with the little straw and handed it to her. 

The redhead smiled and took a sip. Owen then poked open his strawberry one and sipped on it too. He leaned back against her desk, standing by her side and, reaching for the Gansito, he opened the package and brought the cake close to her. She reached out and held the other end of the snack. They both pulled on it, breaking it almost in half, which made her giggle. “Cheers!” He gently brushed his side against hers before he ate almost half of his part in one bite. 

“Are you going to tell me what’s with the outfit?” Owen nudged her playfully. They had moved to the couch after their breakfast. Claire slowly rested her head against his, feeling his fingers twirling the ends of her hair while his arm rested around her shoulders. 

She blushed and looked down at her fingers, “I...um...I kinda lost a bet.” She shrugged, her head slowly turning to face him and her eyes falling on his. 

Owen laughed, “against whom? They really owned you with that.” He knew that for her it must have been beyond embarrassing to be seen wearing a shirt of ‘the competition’. 

“Control Center.” She bit on her lip and reached out for her cellphone on the table across from them, trying to pretend to get distracted with something else, hoping he would drop the subject. 

“I’m sorry.” He laughed before kissing her temple. 

Claire frowned and shook her head. “It was your fault, so…” She shrugged, her tone a little too serious for Owen to let it slide as a joke. 

“My fault?” He tilted his head. 

“I caught them having this whole betting system.” She started to explain. Owen cleared his throat and pulled his arm back. As far as he knew, no one in the control center was involved with the deal he had with some of the employees, but this whole thing she was mentioning made him a little nervous. 

“Um... what kind of betting?” He frowned, his chest twirling around at the thought of Claire finding out he was being paid to date her.

“They were spying on us and betting on how long it would take us to...you know...kiss.” She rolled her eyes. Owen released a chuckle and relaxed against the couch. “And I wanted to get back at them because the loser had to go through whatever dare… or that’s what they told me, but I know there was money involved.” She felt like voicing the fact that she wasn’t stupid. 

“You tried to kiss me just so you could win a bet?” Owen grinned, green eyes looking up at him. She shook her head blushing. 

“No…I…I really wanted to kiss you.” She looked down at her hands, shivering at the feeling of his arm slowly hugging her shoulders again. 

“WantED?” He playfully curved an eyebrow. 

Claire looked away and shook her head. She nibbled on her nails and pursed her lips, letting a couple of seconds of silence sink in, “What did you mean with that?” She murmured, her eyes deep in confusion when fixed on his. 

“Nothing, I was just teasing.” He chuckled brushing a strand of hair off her face and tucking it behind her ear. He frowned; he wanted her to stop looking at him that way. He didn’t like seeing her gorgeous eyes so lost. 

“No...I mean...when you said you didn’t want to hurt me.” She explained. 

Owen slowly looked down, impossible for him to make eye contact with her in that moment. He let his hand gently intertwine fingers with hers and let them play together. The arm he had around her tightened around her and brought her closer. “Um…” He gulped and shook his head. 

Claire looked down at their hands and didn’t look back up until she felt his forehead against hers.

“I desperately wanted to kiss you~” He confessed. 

“Then why didn’t you?” She whispered. 

“But—“ 

“But what?” She whimpered, letting her eyes dance with his before she felt his hand caressing her cheek, unable to stop herself from tilting her head into his touch. 

“—But I’m an idiot.” He confessed, their noses brushing against each other, his body leaning closer against hers. 

Claire gulped softly, feeling his warm breath so close to her, feeling her own breathing growing fast. She let her hands reach out and cup his cheeks, her thumbs brushing along his jawline. 

“We always go out in the afternoon.” He murmured breaking the silence. The only dates he ever took her out to were those he was paid to do, but he wanted more than that. “Have dinner with me tonight?” He asked, slowly pulling back. 

Claire frowned at the invitation that came right after he had restrained himself from kissing her once again. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head, “and I think you should go.” 

 

* * *

 

“If you don’t help me out with this, you will have to find somebody else to date her, because she...she’s kinda done with me.” Owen admitted while standing in front of Hector and Miguel.  “DON’T find anyone else, though. I’ll fix this!” He immediately added the moment that image popped into his head; some other guy dating Claire, that was not an alternative. 

“You want us to learn to play the accordion and the mandolin in less than ten hours!? ¡Estás loco!” Both janitors shook their heads. 

“You can do this!” Owen insisted, and upon taking a bag they had for him, he handed them the music sheet of what he needed them to play that night for him. Owen pulled his shirt off and took the one Hector had brought with him out of the bag. He put that on and sighed. “Listen, you still need her to agree to go out with me right?” Both janitors nodded, their eyes trying to read the music sheet they were holding. “So don’t do this for me, do it for you!” 

Hector and Miguel turned to look at each other and quietly nodded, agreeing to doing this. How hard could it be to learn a few notes from a kid’s song?

Once he had that down, Owen headed to the employee’s cafeteria. He needed a favor from the manager there too, someone who was involved with this whole deal like most of the kitchen staff. 

However, Owen wasn’t expecting to find Claire there. “What are you doing here?” She tilted her head, hugging the paperwork she had with her against her chest. “What are you wearing?” She smiled softly. 

“Um...I just wanted to provide some moral support.” He shrugged, mirroring the loving smile she was offering. “So I had one of the guys get me one in Costa Rica before he boarded the ferry to come to work.” 

The redhead giggled and nodded softly. “It suits you.” She nibbled on her lower lip. The only shirt Hector had found with such short notice was a navy blue one that read ‘I’m so Goofy’ with the character featured on it. 

Claire turned her attention back to her kitchen manager and asked for five minutes. He nodded and left them alone like the boss had requested.

She was quiet for a moment, her green eyes soft on his. “What are you doing here?” She asked again, her lips pursed. 

“I wanted to talk to Adrian, ask for his help.” Owen decided to be honest. He stepped close enough for Claire to be able to play with the ends of his navy blue shirt and slowly move her fingers around the design. 

“What kind of help?” She tilted her head.

“To see if he could cook some really good Italian dinner for you and me tonight.” He murmured.

Claire smiled and looked away, she was pretty sure she had turned him down on that and hinted she didn’t want him to waste her time any more. Green eyes fell on his and she shook her head, “You are very persistent.” She sighed, almost complaining, since it confused her. 

“Well, I really like you.” He shrugged. “And I kinda feel like I should do something that’ll make you like Disney a little bit.” He teased, highlighting the last words by bringing his thumb and forefinger almost together.

“Is that what this is? You are being paid by Disney so I soften up?” 

“You got me~” Owen smirked playfully, “I just don’t think It’s healthy to hate on Disney!” He laughed. “C’mon, what do you say? You...me... Adrian’s famous cooking under the moonlight…?” 

Claire sighed and, nibbling on her lower lip, she slowly agreed with a nod, “pick me up at my office at seven?” She smiled.

“It’s a date.” He nodded, and leaning in, he kissed her cheek gently. 

 

* * *

 

It was a warm clear night on Isla Nublar, the stars and the full moon shining down on Owen and Claire as they walked, holding hands, into the pool area. The pools closed at six and he had agreed with the cleaning staff to have the area looking impeccable by seven. 

Claire was greeted by a single table with a white and red checkered cloth and a single candle on it. Owen pulled one of the chairs out for her and pushed it back once she was seated. There was soft Italian instrumental music coming from a pair of speakers plugged to a phone by the side of the pool. 

Claire narrowed her eyes, wondering what was it that he had in mind, and reaching for her napkin, she rested it on her lap. Owen sat next to her and shifted close enough, feeling her knee rubbing against his under the table. 

Hector and Miguel came around wearing long white aprons, a long chef hat complementing Miguel’s little outfit. “You do have a way of overdoing everything.” Claire blushed at the little detail while their waiters for the night left them some breadsticks on the table and lit the candle for them. 

Hector cleared his throat and handed Claire a menu that only listed one choice of wine, one main dish, and one dessert. He then went ahead and failed his attempt at delivering a line in Italian. “Sorry what?” Claire turned her attention back to her employee and tilted her head. 

“Don’t mind that, that was some sort of Mexican greeting in Italian.” Owen cleared his throat. 

“No somos Mexicanos, Gringo racista culero...” The man mumbled.

Claire started laughing at the line and cleared her throat, trying to calm down. “How about we get some red wine?” She followed the little menu gag, trying to move the whole dinner along. 

“That sounds good, how about we share the Italian Cuisine special?” Owen suggested, hearing Hector still mumbling some stuff to himself in Spanish while pouring them two glasses of red wine, Miguel placing their dinner in front of them.

“Grazie~” Claire offered their waiters upon taking the glass in her hand. She gently took the first sip and after placing the glass back down on the table, she felt Owen’s hand slowly reaching for hers and lace his fingers with hers. She blushed softly and slowly looked up, feeling his other arm sliding around her shoulders. 

“I hope you like a good old Italian classic!” Owen grinned before bringing his arm back and grabbing his fork. 

“Spaghetti and meatballs is not actually Italian, though.” Claire casually let him know, also reaching out for her fork, before twirling the spaghetti around it. 

“What are you talking about? It’s like their burgers!” He insisted, “or that one dish Italian grannies cook for their grandchildren when they want to spoil them.” 

“Um...no.” She grimaced.

“Please, you probably think Chinese food isn’t really Chinese, either!” He snorted.

“Actually, what we label as chinese food is not even close to a traditional dish for the Chinese” Claire stated, smiling proudly. “Anyways...How is this going to make me like Disney?” She arched an eyebrow. Owen motioned with his head to the two latinos, and both Hector and Miguel rushed inside, coming back just mere seconds later playing and singing Bella Notte for them. It was surprising how good they were, given how they both had learned to play their instruments that day. She blushed and shook her head.

“Huh?” Owen smiled softly. 

“This doesn’t make me like disney, but...it kind of works on your advantage though.” She looked down to their shared plate and brought some of the spaghetti to his lips.

Owen took the bite and licked his lips once he had swallowed it. He twirled some of the spaghetti with his fork and, mirroring her, he fed it to her. 

He couldn’t take his eyes away from her green ones . He didn’t know if it was the candle light or the reflection of the full moon above them, but they were sparkling brighter than usual. 

By the time they were almost done with their dinner, both janitors had already mastered the song they had kept playing through the evening. 

Owen stabbed the last of their meatballs with his fork and brought it to her lips. Claire slowly ate it and, reaching for her wine, she took a sip. 

After dinner, Owen and Claire went for a walk around the Mosasaurus lagoon. It was almost eight thirty by then, and even if the park was still open, there weren’t many people around. 

They found their way into the Underwater Observatory, holding hands while finishing their ice-cream cone dessert. Claire was laughing watching Owen try eating the rest of his before it completely melted; he was licking the end of the cone while some ice-cream ran down his cheek. 

The redhead used her napkin to help him clean the corner of his lips before finding a waste bin to dispose of it. Owen thanked her before reaching over and hugging her from behind, his arms gently wrapping around her waist while they walked over to the glass, watching the many species of pre-historic marine creatures swimming around. 

“So, when is the top-secret dinosaur going to be unveiled?” He wondered while nuzzling into her neck. 

“She’s scheduled to debut in seven weeks.” She shared, her hands slowly caressing his strong forearms while her brain and her heart battled his advances on her and how confusing they were. 

“You are coming with me to her first show aren’t you?” It didn’t take a genius to know that’s what they had planned, with the huge stadium they were building on one side of the lagoon and all. “Front row seats... right in the middle of the action.” He teased before slowly turning her around to face him. 

“No.” She shook her head, her eyes slowly falling on his, feeling his arms pull her closer to him.

His hazel eyes locked with her green ones for a second before he gently let his hand run around the back of her neck and lean closer. 

Owen smiled softly and let his lips tenderly brush hers, “yes~” he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers, feeling Claire’s arms hesitant for a second before she slid her fingers up his biceps; “No...” She insisted, before closing her eyes and feeling his lips tenderly press against hers. 

“Yes...” He whispered, feeling how his heart was beating loud against hers.

“Shut up and kiss me...” Claire whispered back, finally feeling Owen capture her lips into a gentle yet passionate kiss.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to my editor in chief :)

One of Claire’s favorite things lately was the feeling of Owen’s strong arm around her neck, pulling her close for a kiss as they walked through Main Street. 

They both had just finished lunch at Margaritaville and Owen was walking her back to her office before the 2PM phone call she had scheduled, as he had promised. 

He held the door to the Innovation Center open so she could step in first and then his arm slid around her right away. It had been a couple of weeks since they had first kissed, and they still couldn’t get enough of it. They were both always finding a little moment to steal a peck, just like the one Claire requested that exact second, after pouting her lips for him to kiss them.

“Look at that, it’s five minutes to two.” Owen grinned once they were in front of her office. His hands gently hugged her waist as she faced him. “And I don’t give my time away.” 

Claire’s green eyes were lovingly fixed on his, her hands resting over his shoulders. “Then come and get it.” She bit on her lower lip, curving her body against his before a chuckle escaped him and Owen kissed her gently. 

Zara, who was at the reception desk, had to clock them and sit there while the couple stood by Claire’s office door, making out for the whole five minutes, only briefly pulling apart for oxygen from time to time, before they dived back to devour each other’s mouths again.  

The English assistant cleared her throat to let her boss know it was time for her call. Claire moaned softly before offering one last peck, kissing him soundly. “Five minutes are up! I have to go.” She smiled and, turning around, she bumped into the old lady who cleaned her office. 

“Sorry~” Claire blushed feeling the janitor cart hitting her legs. “Oh, espera... He estado juntando monedas para tu tarro.” She smiled and motioned for Owen to follow her into her office, to say goodbye properly (like a five-minute make out sessions hadn’t been enough). 

Claire started looking for the change she had saved to give the lady once she saw her. The redhead had a small plastic bag with pennies, nickels, and quarters for her.

“You’ve been giving them your change?” Owen cleared his throat. 

“Yeah...that jar is so cute and they deserve it.” She smiled while emptying the bag into the jar. “Plus, I hate leaving coins around so why not?” She shrugged. 

“Gracias señorita Dearing.” The lady smiled, there were at least ten dollars of change there. The lady janitor nodded her head and started pushing her cart over to the next office. 

“Yeah...don’t do that, please.” He brushed the back of his head. 

“Why not?” She asked while walking around and dialling the WebEx call ID and password into her Avaya so she could join the call. She was about three minutes late already, but when wasn’t she really?

“Because it’s not… right.” He looked away and stood by her, resting his back on the edge of her desk.

“It’s just for their stupid soccer thing. Plus, it’s a way to let them know I’m not against their ridiculous passion...just against them being unproductive and watching those games during work hours.” She smiled. 

“It’s all messed up, actually.” He mumbled. Claire was technically paying him to date her.

Claire hated wearing headsets, so she let the call run on speaker like she always did. It wasn’t anything classified, but some marketing related to the Mosasaurus and potential sponsors for the asset. Owen shouldn’t be there, but she knew nothing too sensitive would be discussed and she trusted him. 

“Anyways...” The redhead didn’t let him talk her into stopping this and changed the subject. Once she introduced herself into the call, she muted it from her end and slid herself between his legs. “Where were we?” She nibbled on her lower lip and ran her hands across his chest. 

Owen grinned and adjusted against her desk before he let his hands move around her waist. He kissed her lips gently before he pulled away, just to feel her teeth nibbling on his chin. She had to pull back and unmute the call so she could answer when they were talking to her. 

The man peppered her neck with kisses while she did so, her tone of voice was so formal and firm...it turned him on a little. He had never seen her in action until now that he was spending some quality time with her outside those arranged dates. 

Owen groaned, slowly running his hands up her back and letting his finger feel the strap of her bra. Claire shifted, still able to keep talking to the people connected to the WebEx call. She didn’t hesitate muting her end again once she was done talking, and slid closer to him. “Now you need to behave if you want to stay...” She teased him, kissing him soundly a couple of times.

“Yes, ma’am~” Owen moaned feeling how the tip of her tongue slowly slid between his lips, encouraging him to kiss her deeper. 

Claire groaned a second later and slowly pulled back, going back to her call. Owen had no idea what they were talking about; all his ears could hear were the moans he was causing Claire to utter. He was impressed she was able to follow the conversation and make out with him at the same time. 

“Tell me, gorgeous...” He murmured low enough so it couldn’t be heard on the other end of the call, “how many guys have you done this with...?” He wondered, a little jealous of the potential answer, if he had to be honest. He brushed his lips across her collarbone, leaving soft kisses on her flesh. 

Claire was explaining the whole attraction to their potential sponsors, who were basically insulting her, saying it was like that _Shamu_ show in Sea World — although for them, there was nothing wrong about that. It sounded pretty cool actually. 

The Operations Manager smiled at the man in front of her and shook her head. She pointed at him, which made him mirror her action and point his finger at himself and mouth: ‘me?’ before smiling at her. Claire nodded with a smile while she kept talking, and pointed up with her index finger to let him know he was the first one. 

He nodded, proud of that, and pulling her closer, he let his lips kiss behind her ear before teasing her earlobe. He pressed her tight against him from the small of her back; Claire kept her head tilted to the side and her eyes closed, never missing her mark while talking. 

It wasn’t until she felt his big hands sliding down her butt cheeks that she released a high pitch cry and blushed. The call went silent for a moment while she slapped his hand and motioned with her finger for him not to do that. 

“So as I was saying, this is more of an exposition of the asset. There’s no show. We will feed her with a crane and have her jump out of the water to let our guests have a full view of her size and monstrous presence.” She muted her call while they paraphrased what she had just said. 

“So, how many dates until I’m granted some booty access?” He pouted while caressing the back of his hand, like a child who had just been scolded.

 

* * *

 

Game day came around, and it fell on a Tuesday afternoon. Owen had asked Claire to meet him outside the Innovation Center. He had just been paid by Miguel and Hector the day before and had used those hundred dollars to surprise Claire with something he was hoping she’d ultimately enjoy. 

At exactly one in the afternoon, Claire was walking outside the building. He greeted her with a kiss and slowly pulled a long handkerchief out of the front pocket of his jeans. 

Claire tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what he had in mind.

“You trust me, right?” He smirked, slowly walking around her, nuzzling her neck from behind.

She nodded softly and nibbled on her lower lip, feeling how he blindfolded her. She blushed: this was definitely very cute, even if she hated the whole idea of being blindfolded. 

Once she couldn’t see anything, she felt around for him and giggled, feeling him sweep her off her feet. He wouldn’t let her walk like that — or maybe it was just an excuse to carry her in his arms. 

Once they hopped in the Jeep he had borrowed, Owen helped her with her seatbelt and started to drive to their destination. 

“Where are we going?” Claire wondered after a few minutes. “There’s nothing on the back of the Innovation Center.” She tilted her head. 

“That’s not where we are going....” He scoffed. 

“So we didn’t just turn by the Pachy Arena to take that road?” She wondered incredulously.

Owen chuckled. “Nooooo.” He frowned and made a U turn, then headed straight.

“There’s an easier way to the Aviary, you know?” She felt around for his lap and caressed it softly. “Here is just driving through roots and it’s a messy road, I don’t get why people think it’s a short cut.”

It was a few seconds later when Owen saw the bumpy road she was talking about, and he realized she knew the island too well for him to be able to surprise her they way he expected. So it was time to get creative. 

It took him twenty minutes to confuse her after making a lot of turns through the jungle, and even go a few minutes in reverse. He had to stop and text his guy to stay around, assuring they were on their way. 

Owen had taken her to the Expedition Center, which was just ten minutes away from the volcano shaped building, but she had made this impossible for him. 

He didn’t let her touch the ground and carried her out of the Jeep the moment he opened the door for her. “Fat chance that you’ll walk over there, figuring out where we are by recognizing the floor!” He teased her. 

Claire nosed into his neck and held tight onto him while Owen reached for her hand and unlocked the door. She tilted her head, trying to think of buildings that were restricted like that. 

By the time she could figure it out, Owen had already put her down and taken the blindfold off. It had been the sound of the helicopter waiting for them that had given his surprise away. 

“I know you said you are scared of flying, but...I kinda want to show you how amazing it can be.” He took both her hands in his and kissed them softly. 

“Owen...” She frowned and nervously bit on her lower lip. 

“Help you let go of your insecurity and fear, may I please?” He cupped her cheeks and pecked her lips. 

“Those choppers are for VIP guests.” She chuckled, “who’s—”

“Don’t...! Don’t.” He begged. He knew she was going to start going on about the authorization to use the chopper and the paperwork to have it unavailable for the paying customers. “I wouldn’t get you into any trouble, would I? Have I ever?” He smiled.

Claire sighed and slowly started walking to the helicopter. “You know I’ve been in one of these a few times before.” She rolled her eyes and sat in the passenger seat before she buckled up and put on the headsets. 

Owen gave the pilot a thumbs up for him to go and probably take a nap during those three hours Owen had paid him to take the helicopter out. Sure, trusting some guy with a chopper worth thousands of dollars was very irresponsible, but Owen was Navy! He knew how to fly a commercial helicopter, in his sleep. 

“Where is he going!?” Claire was alarmed. “Wait are you going to fly this!?” She started to look for her seatbelt clip so she could take it off and leave. 

“It’s okay, babe. I’m overqualified to fly this thing.” He was calm while checking out everything was set and ready to go. “This looks like a joystick compare to the control board in the ones I used to be trained on.” He assured her. 

Claire was breathing fast and holding tight onto the handle over her head. “Okay.” She gulped, “so you know what you are doing?” 

Owen nodded and started to explain to her the different buttons and switches he was pushing so she could understand there was a specific command for every gesture, and not think he was just messing around. 

The helicopter did exactly what Owen had explained it would do after he worked with the switches, including pushing the main control stick forward so the chopper could start going up.

 

* * *

 

He was flying the helicopter through the mountains while making sure Claire kept her eyes open and breathed deep, trying to stay calm. She was always so fierce, and this was a side of her Owen had never thought he’d see. It was adorable and he would sometimes let the helicopter drop a few feet just to hear her scream. She’d hit him and get mad but he couldn’t help laughing at that. 

“I’m never letting you crash and burn, not in a helicopter or anywhere...” He promised.

Claire smiled and nodded her head, understanding what he meant, and appreciating that. 

“So what’s around here?” He asked her, knowing she was a living GPS when it came to Nublar. 

“Um...” She licked her lips and looked around, “The aviary should be behind those mountains over there.” She pointed behind them. “So should the Gallimimus Valley.” She nodded with determination. 

“Perfect.” He smiled and kept going forward. 

In a couple of minutes, Owen was flying just feet over those creatures, speeding along with them. It felt like they were running with the herd. It was that kind of feeling that made you want to reach out and brush your fingers on their necks and just feel their presence under your finger pads. 

He turned to watch Claire observing the assets run freely in the valley, forgetting she was scared and nervous about flying. 

He followed the creatures for a couple of minutes before bringing the chopper up again, and headed to their destination. 

Owen landed on a helipad a few feet from a waterfall that was exclusively accessible to VIP guests who paid for the helicopter tour. 

Tuesdays were usually slow at the park, so they had the place all to themselves. Owen brought a picnic basket from the chopper and the two of them started to set up the table by the waterfall. 

The view was incredible: the water fell down into a long cascade that died in the lake further down. The breeze was refreshing and the sound of nature was relaxing. 

“You wouldn’t eat lunch with me in the waterfall, would you?” Owen smiled, he knew they didn’t have a spare outfit with them but they could figure something out if that was something she wanted to do.

“You, me, and the flesh eating monsters who live there?” She shook her head.

“Noooo...you guys charge people a pretty penny to swim here.” Owen was incredulous. 

“They also come with a tour guide, one who knows which tiers are okay to swim in and which ones are not.” She explained. Claire took his hand and guided him to the edge of one of the tiers. There were some small fish swimming there, neither of them caring that the couple was standing above them. 

She then walked him to the one below, and once they got close to the edge, some ugly looking dark gray fish swam over, anxious for their next meal. 

The feeling of those things swimming desperately close to the edge all together was unsettling. Owen stepped back and rubbed his chest. “No swimming then.” He smiled. 

After their lunch, Claire found his lap more comfortable than her chair and so she had been sitting on it for the past five minutes; their lips unable to waste a second without kissing. 

“I still want to swim with you...” Owen murmured against her lips. “How about tonight? So you have time to get your swimsuit if you are shy.” He teased her.

She giggled and let her lips run around his neck. “How about this weekend?” She let her eyes fall on his. “Can I plan a date for us this time? One that includes swimming, maybe?” She tilted her head. “Or are you too old fashioned to let your girlfriend plan a date?” 

“My girlfriend?” He said softly, tilting his head.

“No. I mean...” Claire blushed. “I just meant the girl you are dating.” She chuckled and looked away.

Owen chuckled at how nervous she had gotten and pushed her hair back. “My girlfriend...” he murmured against her lips and, gulping lightly, he brushed his against hers. 

“Yeah...” She nodded gently. 

“Can you promise me something?” He asked. His mind was spinning around fast, it was too late for him to try stopping himself from falling for her, because he was already halfway there and by the look of it, she was too. 

Now he wasn’t just afraid of hurting her, but the thought of her ever finding out about the initial motives of him asking her out, was terrifying him. 

“What?” She frowned, her eyes fixed on his, waiting for him to tell her. 

“That you’ll always keep in mind that I...I...”

“That you what, baby?” She giggled gently, brushing her nose against his.

“That I mean everything I tell you. And every detail and how I put all this effort in...it’s because you are worth all of it and nothing less.” He looked down, shaking his head gently. 

“I promise.” She kissed his lips lovingly, “you weirdo.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to my editor in Chief <3

How Claire managed to walk from the Innovation Center all the way to Owen’s bungalow in heels and under the burning sun of Isla Nublar, she wouldn’t be able to tell. Perhaps her boiling blood, hotter than that noon weather, had been what had kept her going. 

There had been only a few times in her life when she had felt completely defeated, and today was one of them. She was breathing fast, her heels loud against the staircase up to Owen’s bungalow. She knocked on his door, hard enough for it to feel like she was about to actually _knock_ the door _down_. 

She knew it was his day off and he should be home; at least that’s what he’d said before leaving her to start her day that morning, after breakfast. 

“Hey~” He frowned upon answering the door. Just by the look on her face, he knew something was wrong. 

The way she immediately collapsed against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist told him things were worse than he thought. He frowned, his hands brushing her hair before he wrapped her tight into a reassuring embrace. “Did you just _walk_ all the way here?” He noticed her car was nowhere to be seen. 

Claire nodded against his neck and sobbed. He gently led her inside and closed the door behind them. It wasn’t until they were sitting on the couch that he heard her crying, but it was not a sad crying. It sounded like she was frustrated and just tired. She never let him see her face. She wasn’t used to letting people see her like this, and she really didn’t want to show him that vulnerable side of her just yet.

“What happened?” He murmured, letting her know he was concerned and that she could totally rely on him and just vent. Owen kissed the top of her head, his hand caressing her shoulder while he held her as close as he could.

“You know...very few times in my life I’ve felt like I couldn’t handle something. I’m always up to the challenge of not only delivering but going beyond what’s expected.” She sobbed, her arms tightly around his waist. “You know what that makes me?” 

“That makes you the best.” She wasn’t expecting an answer, but he had taken the second she sobbed to slide that in. 

“It makes me stupid. It makes him believe that I can do everything, that I have eight arms and can do whatever he throws my way.” She was talking about Masrani, who had been constantly pressuring her for a presentation they had on Monday for their new asset’s potential sponsor. 

“It means you are his go to girl, and he trusts you with his life and his fortune.” Owen tried to remind her why she worked so hard, to reassure her. 

“I like to believe I have everything under control, that I can juggle each ball they throw at me and gracefully keep three balls in the air.” Owen nuzzled close, feeling the collar of his shirt pampered while she cried on his shoulder. 

“You can juggle four and even five balls in the air if you want!” He took her hands and kissed them lovingly. 

“Then why am I failing?” She mumbled. She hated to admit it, because she liked to keep the image that she was invincible. “Why am I going to miss the deadline and that stupid presentation won’t be ready for the meeting on Monday?” She hiccuped a little, unable to keep her tears quiet anymore. 

No one would understand how this made her feel, like everything was crumbling down; once she lost control... it was game over for her. Owen slowly pulled back and kissed her tears away before he stood up. “I will be right back, babe.” He reassured her. 

He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and poured some in a clean glass. He also went looking for a box of tissues and met her back in the living room. Owen sat back down next to her and with one tissue he cleaned her face, feeling her green eyes on him, before he let her blow her nose with a clean tissue. He then offered her the glass of water. Owen reached down for her feet and took her heels off. He was sure they were probably killing her after having walked that long distance. 

He moved her legs and made her sit across his lap before his fingers played with her hair. Once she gulped the whole glass down, he set it on the coffee table in front of the couch. 

Claire hugged him, wanting to feel his arms holding her close: she felt safe in them. “What’s wrong with your presentation, beautiful?” He kissed her forehead. 

“I need these 3D renderings of the new stadium for our client and the incompetent moron in charge of them keeps missing his deadline.” She sighed. 

Owen fixed his eyes on hers and nodded, letting her know he was listening. 

“Of course Simon is pinning it on me that the presentation is not ready — when I actually finished my part days ago — saying it’s my job to make sure his architect does his job.” She snorted. “Because if it’s my responsibility to present the project to our sponsor, then it automatically means I have to be babysitting this idiot.” She whimpered before hiding her face against his neck. “He wants the rendering to be photorealistic and that takes two to three days, how the hell am I going to finish this on time? I don’t even know where to start for that! I’m not a damned architect!” She started crying again. 

“Have you talked to the guy? Maybe you don’t have to start from scratch.” Owen frowned. Seeing her so defeated was breaking his heart. One of the many things he found sexy about her was her determination and her confidence that she could conquer the world if she wanted to. 

Claire brushed her hair off her face and adjusted against him, “I shouldn’t be here...I should be working on that stupid design...and I don’t have time for it, I have other things to do, you know?” She covered her face and chuckled. “This is so embarrassing, please don’t tell anyone I’m complaining about this?” 

“I promise. You were never here.” He smiled playfully.

The redhead shifted. “This is a multimillion deal, and without that presentation...I’ll be costing Jurassic World—“ She sighed. 

“Shhh…” Owen frowned, the pressure she dealt with every day was heavy on her shoulders, and it always went unnoticed. Even Masrani seemed to be taking her for granted by now. 

“I’m so glad I have you...” She sobbed, letting her eyes meet his. “I would probably be locked in a bathroom stall pulling my hair out if you weren’t here. You—you give me strength.” She teared up. “I hope I’m not scaring you.” She blushed. 

“Why would you scare me?” He murmured, letting his fingers brush down her cheek. 

Claire shrugged. “Men find it uncomfortable when we cry.” 

Owen sighed and nodded. “That’s because we feel helpless, and it breaks our hearts that we can’t kill the architect that is making our girlfriend’s life a living hell.” 

Claire giggled, and tilting her head up, she pouted her lips, feeling Owen press a soft peck on them. 

“I feel horrible that we have to cancel our date though.” She looked down to her hands, “I had everything planned out and I was really looking forward to spending some time at the beach with you.” She nibbled on her lower lip. 

“It’s completely understandable. Please don’t ever feel bad because you have to cancel due to work.” He asked. “Just— don’t do it all the time.” He teased. 

Claire nodded. “Hold me? Just for five minutes? Before I go back to work?” She begged, moaning softly while she felt those strong arms around her. Claire closed her eyes and nosed into his neck, taking in his scent while feeling his lips press against the top of her head. 

 

* * *

 

Claire spent the rest of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday watching youtube tutorials to work on the 3D renderings that were required for her presentation — the ones their architect had failed to send. The guy was lucky he wasn’t on Nublar, or Claire would have gone to find him and kill him herself. Sending him emails and trying to have him return her calls was just a waste of time and so that’s why she had decided to do this herself. 

The operations manager didn’t leave her office during the whole weekend. Owen would come and bring her some food and eat with her while she kept working, but she never really took more than a ten minute break. 

Her eyes hurt from the frustrated crying she had done that previous Friday; she hadn’t slept for two nights either, and the combination of all this had caused her a headache. She had the stadium’s blue print rolled open on the table across from the couch where she was working. 

She was switching between working on her desk and on the couch. Sometimes, after people had gone home, she’d go to the break room around the hall just to change a little bit. She tried to keep herself hydrated and always carried a bottle of water with her. Claire also tried not to neglect her actual job and used her cellphone to reply to emails, since her laptop was now being used for the 3D graphic she was working on. 

Owen had also surprised her at around midnight so she could have someone around and keep herself awake. He would bring her ice-cream for them to share, or anything with high levels of sugar to help her stay up. The redhead would usually take a break and rest her eyes while they cuddled on the couch. 

With a very heavy pain in his heart, Owen would wake her up a couple of hours later and encourage her to go on. She was slowly progressing on doing it, and by the time they were done with dinner that Sunday night, she had about seventy percent done. The stadium was looking pretty majestic, just like the one in front of her office would once the building up was finished, and it was now just missing very crucial details. 

It was past midnight when Owen made it back to her office. Her meeting was at ten in the morning that Monday and he was hoping she was almost done. 

“So I might or might have not shoplifted your candy shop...” Owen chuckled while nibbling on a gummy T-Rex. He had a bag full of candy that he figured they could share and keep her sugar levels high.

He looked up from the bag of candy just to find her asleep against the couch back rest. The bottle of water between her arm and waist and her cellphone on her other hand. It was evident she had fallen asleep without noticing. 

Owen smiled at the sight and quietly closed the door to her office. He grabbed the bottle and cellphone and set them on the table. He slowly kneeled by it and checked on the design. She had about eighty percent done now. 

He carried her laptop over to her desk and went back to her. He couldn’t leave her sitting like that but he didn’t want to wake her up either. The past couple of nights he had noticed how she cuddled into him unconsciously, so he used that trick to lie her down on the couch. All it took was for him to sit next to her and hold her gently before she curled up. 

Once back at her desk, he slapped his face a couple of times: it was time to pull an all nighter. He also knew a little about this software. He had used it in the past even if only to mess around. He took a moment to study what she had so far, paying attention to every detail, so he could try and follow the vision she had. 

It wasn’t until the alarm on her iPhone started going off at eight in the morning that Claire jumped off the couch. She had set it so she could go back home, shower, and be presentable for her meeting. 

“Fuck...” She cursed, fully aware she hadn’t finished. She turned her alarm off and, noticing her laptop was not on the table, she started looking around. 

“Good morning, gorgeous.” Owen made it to her office just in time, holding hot coffee and breakfast. “Even with messy hair and pillow lines on your face you look sexy as hell.” He teased her. 

“Ugh. Shut up, I don’t have time for this.” She was alarmed. She stood up and headed to her desk where her laptop was. “I fell asleep and I didn’t finish. God!” She covered her face with her hands and was breathing hard, trying not to cry.

“Hey~Hey...” Owen set the food on the table and, stepping close, he let her wrap her arms around his waist. He kissed her forehead a couple of times. “The thingy is finished. Every seat, every shadow, even the mosasaurus jumping up to catch her treat.” He was present during that conference call and remembered that’s what she’d said the attraction would be about. 

“The what? That’s not part of the design.” She tilted her head. 

“Neither were the little dudes getting soaked but I was bored, so…” Owen shrugged and guided her to the laptop, which he had left charging. “Ta-da!” He opened the file and presented it to her. 

“Babe...” She smiled, shocked. “When did you do this?” She hid her face on his shoulder, trying to avoid him seeing how moved she was— to the point of tearing up. 

“I came here around 1AM and you were passed out on the couch.” He held her close, brushing her back. “I just couldn’t wake you up, so I—”

“Thank you...” She murmured. She pecked his lips hard, a couple of times, holding his face with all the affection and gratitude she had. 

“I took the liberty to add it to your presentation.” He smiled, “Now... I was good and didn’t read any of that.” He promised. “I just _Eeny_ , _meeny_ , _miny_ , _moe'd_ a slide and inserted it there.” 

Claire laughed and sobbed. She cupped his cheeks again and kissed him lovingly. “Having a boyfriend is great” She smiled. “Having you as my boyfriend, though...” she sighed, “I feel so safe, like you’ve got my back, and I trust you with all my heart.” She murmured, pressing her forehead to his and caressing his cheek. 

Owen gulped and nodded. “I would do anything for you, baby...I live for that smile.” He smirked. “Now I believe I earned the privilege to have breakfast with the gorgeous boss lady, didn’t I?” 

Claire nodded and walked back to the couch with him so they could eat.

 

* * *

 

“...And a hundred.” Miguel finished counting the money he was handing Owen for him to keep Claire away from the park the next day, Tuesday, which was a very important game day. 

Owen sighed and pushed the money into the front pocket of his jeans, before feeling his cellphone buzzing. He pulled it out and smiled, reading it was a text message from Claire. He turned around and walked away from the janitor while reading the text. It was 1PM and he figured she was finally done with her meeting.

“Meet me at dock in fifteen? Bring your trunks. Time to cash your rain check.” She simply texted. She had gone back to her place and changed into her bikini and wore a denim skirt over it. The meeting had gone great and she was going to take the rest of the afternoon to just relax and release stress. 

Owen managed to make it to the dock before she did. He was wearing his swim trunks and a shirt while waiting for her. Claire grinned brightly from afar and started running in that heated sand the best she could in flip flops. 

She squealed loudly before jumping into his arms and kissing him lovingly. He carried her to the shore and let her feet rest on the wet sand while the waves rolled over their ankles. 

His hazel eyes were penetrating while admiring how gorgeous she looked in that sapphire blue bikini. He hugged her close, letting his hands rest on her back, kissing her deeply. She giggled, feeling him gently run his fingers over her ass. He grinned at how she was letting him claim his reward for how amazing he had been over the weekend. His fingers slowly pulled the zipper of her skirt down and slid down her legs, bringing the garment down, watching her step out of it. He threw it back on the sand and, cupping her cheeks, he kissed her gently. 

Claire let her fingers find the ends of his shirt, and nibbling on her lips, she slowly pulled it over his head. She threw it behind her shoulders as well, not caring were it landed. 

Her green eyes then took in those strong sexy pectorals and couldn’t help but gulp. She let her fingertips tenderly massage his chest. Owen chuckled, noticing how much she liked not only playing with his chest hair, but the view of his muscles. 

He pulled her up from her ass, hearing her giggle, and once her legs were wrapped around his waist, he turned around and started running into the water. The waves breaking against Claire’s back made her scream at how cold the water was, then a big one completely rolled over them. 

Once the wave had passed them over, Claire gasped for air. She laughed and brought her hands up to cover her face watching Owen shake the water off his head. He grinned and, tightening his grip around her, he leaned in for a kiss, tasting the salty water on her lips and the warmth of her tongue as their kiss grew deeper. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***** This chapter contains very explicit sexual content so please read at your own discretion. *****
> 
> Also, special shoutout to my awesome editor in Chief whom this time also collaborated by writing the adorable perfect scene involving horseback. <3

“Dating the Operations Manager has its perks!” Owen smiled while brushing his fingers through the leather couch they were sitting on. Both him and Claire were on a ferry on their way to Costa Rica. 

He pulled a small handle and their couch leaned backwards, pulling up a place for him to rest his feet. “Pura vida!” He ginned at the waiter who was back with his cold beer and Claire’s strawberry mango smoothie. 

“Thank you.” Claire offered upon taking her drink and sipping on it. She stirred the straw around while her eyes were on Owen. He was enjoying the exclusive lounge they had for themselves, one only high level personnel — like Masrani himself, Claire, and board members — could enjoy, along with some important guests who also had access to it. 

Owen opened a lid on the arm rest and from there he turned on the 60-inch tv screen in front of them. He started switching channels, the room had access to free WiFi and DirectTV. It was almost seven in the morning so he left some random movie on. 

Claire eyed him and slowly pulled her cellphone out of her purse. She had promised to leave it back home and take the weekend off. She kept looking over while she answered a couple of e-mails. 

“You’ve been bad, Miss Dearing” Owen ran his arm around her shoulders and slowly took the cell phone away from her. 

“Hey! Not fair!” She complained. “Besides, you are busy with your stupid movie so...” She pointed out. 

Owen chuckled and turned the tv off. “You know, not every man would turn the tv off to pay attention to their woman.” He teased, feeling her curling closer on that couch.

“I’m a very lucky girl.” She agreed with a nod before kissing his lips gently and moaning softly. 

Owen smiled and kissed her forehead, “Every man on that island envies me, you know.” Claire snorted and adjusted in his arms. “Are you going to show me that itinerary you are hiding or?” 

“I didn’t make one...” Claire shrugged before she looked up and took their breakfast from their waiter. Owen pulled the glass tray over and rested their plate there. He cut a piece of pancake with the fork and slowly fed it to his girlfriend. 

“Don’t make me feel around for it...” He teased. 

Claire cleared her throat a little and shifted, “I wouldn’t stop you...” She admitted blushing a little. Owen curved an eyebrow and smirked. He pushed the tray away and tightened his grip around her shoulder before kissing her lips gently. 

“Let’s see... if I were a woman...where would I hide my itinerary?” He pretended to think this through. His fingers slowly hooking onto her top’s neckline, allowing his eyes to have a glance at her breasts. 

“You wore your bikini under your outfit.” He growled, getting distracted for a moment. She had wanted to pack for a day out in town, he’d thought it was not necessary and had suggested she should wear her bikini as underwear and be done with it. 

Claire’s hand reached out and held his while he still had his fingers pulling lightly at her top. She was quiet and offered a nod, her fingers slowly running up the back of his hand guiding it over her breast. 

They had been dating for almost four months and Claire was starting to feel like they could take their relationship further, beyond make out sessions. 

Owen fixed his eyes on hers and gently squeezed her breast like she had so bluntly suggested. She moaned, feeling his lips kissing her softly. He didn’t waste time and felt completely enabled. His hands ran up under her top and they both took hold of a breast each. They kissed passionately while he adjusted on top of her after resting her back flat on the couch. 

Claire kept moaning between kisses, their legs adjusting while they both got comfortable on the leather seat. He slowly reached down with one of his hands and slid it up the inside of her leg, wishing she was wearing a dress or a skirt and make this easier. 

“Wait...” Claire panted before she slowly sat up. “I can’t do this here.” She blushed and rubbed her forehead. 

She fixed her hair and Owen pulled back, respecting her decision. “I need a minute.” He chuckled before he adjusted. 

“I’m sorry.” She giggled and nuzzled close, kissing around his neck gently. 

“Baby…” He pecked her lips while pulling away. “That’s not helping.” He pecked her lips again. 

“I guess you can have my itinerary, if anything...it would turn you off.” She chuckled bitterly. 

Owen laughed lightly, watching her take it out of her purse and give it to him. “No...they....they are not that bad.” He kissed her temple, trying to make her feel better. 

Claire handed it over and rested on the other side of the couch, watching him go through it. 

“What’s ‘Establo de Lalo’?” Owen stopped going down the list at the first item she had on her itinerary. 

“Oh I thought we could maybe ride a horse to the river?” She smiled. They had talked about taking a raft trip. Claire eyed the expression he had. “You know, through the rougher paths, where your bike won’t do.” She added. She was very aware she had promised to get on his bike and let him take her to places on it. She had yet to get on it and that was something she wasn’t looking forward to. 

“Ha! My bike can go on any kind of terrain.” He assured her. “But I haven’t ridden a horse in a long time, so okay.” He smiled.

“Thank you, baby.” Claire offered, sliding over on top of him and holding him close. 

Owen smiled softly, his heart skipped a beat every time he did something that made her happy. He lived for that, all he wanted was to make her happy. 

“It really means a lot that you are willing to ride English style...” she kissed up to his chin, her lips brushing his before he pulled back.

“Wooah...” He had to stop her there. “I said I would ride to the river, I never said I’d be holding a cup of tea with my pinky poked out and all that pussy shit.” 

“Pussy shit?” Claire frowned and sat back on the couch. “Are you ignorant or simply being an asshole? No... don’t answer that, you are both!” 

“I know that’s not what English riding is all about.” He rolled his eyes. “But it’s still for wussies.” He shrugged. “So maybe I’m an asshole, but an asshole who won’t make a fool out of himself by going on what should be an adventurous trail ride, looking like I’m on a fucking fox hunt.”

“Well...then how about you ride your bike like the macho dickhead you are and I’ll ride a horse like the wussy I am and we see each other back on Nublar on Monday?” 

“Fine.” Owen shrugged and turned the tv back on.

The atmosphere turned thick around them. Claire had gotten her cellphone back and so she spent the next hour buried in e-mails. She had moved to the other side of the lounge, leaving Owen alone. The waiter had brought her a bowl of fruit and grains so she was eating that while working, the only thing keeping her from taking a ferry back home after making it to Costa Rica was the fact that she wasn’t a fan of this fight.

Owen ate the pancakes and scrambled eggs they had gotten to share. He found a movie to watch but couldn’t really keep his eyes from moving over to where Claire was. He frowned, fighting the urge to get closer. 

“Please come back...” He begged, turning the television off. 

Her green eyes looked up and she tilted her head. Claire pouted and frowned a little. 

“I...can move there too. I don’t care where we sit.” He suggested. 

“Are you done being an asshole?” She wondered. 

Owen nodded. “I’m ready to compromise.” He smiled faintly. 

“Compromise?”

He nodded again, “I’ll go English riding with you.” Owen smiled.

Claire mirrored his smile and pursed her lips. “Compromising means I have to meet you halfway, what is it that you have in mind?” 

“That’s for you to find out when the time comes.” He shrugged. 

She nodded faintly and slowly stood up. She moved to a couch that was between them and looked over. He smiled and, standing up, he sat next to her, meeting her halfway.  

“You know what I learned in this past hour?” He murmured, nuzzling close and kissing her forehead. 

“What?” 

“That I hate fighting with you and that I would go crazy without you.” He admitted. “And that’s only over a stupid little fight.” He chuckled. Claire owned him completely. He truly would be lost if she ever were to leave him. 

 

* * *

 

As soon as they got to the mainland, Owen started his bike. He turned to look at Claire, who was still standing by him, nibbling on her nail and shaking her head. She had no idea how she had agreed to ride his bike around town. 

She took a deep breath, and once he tilted the bike sideways, she got on. Claire hugged his back tight. “You okay there?” He asked, making the bike roar before he took off. 

Owen could feel how she clawed to his shirt and bit on his shoulder as he rode his bike up some hills and around some trees. Just like Isla Nublar, Costa Rica was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. 

The redhead had to close her eyes at some parts, avoid dust getting in her eyes as well as screaming while he rode fast down those hills. 

It took them about fifteen minutes to make it to Lalo’s, where Owen was allowed to leave his bike and come get it after they returned the horses.

The couple walked to the reception holding hands. Claire had called a couple of days back and made sure they would keep a couple of horses available for them. Exploring the rainforest and the beaches on horseback was very popular and it was hard to find good place last minute — especially an English riding facility that would allow touristic trail riding in Costa Rica.

Once the owner looked for Claire in his agenda, he guided them to the barn so they could pick two horses of their liking out of the eight that were available. 

They both mutually agreed on geldings — the less moody, the better. Claire immediately laid her eyes on a dapple gray one, while love-struck Owen chose a light chestnut, its mane matching Claire’s hair color (earning a loving peck from his girlfriend for his criteria of decision).

He pumped his fist in the air when they were told that helmets were only optional. Claire shook her head but he eventually convinced her, too.

“Why do I feel like I’m gonna fall off any second? Your saddles are damn weird.” Owen started complaining once they took off and were out of sight enough for the owner not to hear them.

“Just keep your back straight. And shorten your reins a bit, this is not Texas. And keep your heels down.” Claire rolled her eyes and went straight into Boss Mode.

Owen eyed her posture, trying to mimic it, his heart beating faster and faster for the woman. She looked like she owned the world even more on horseback. Furthermore, her horse had an accentuated back movement at the walk, which made her hips roll quite a lot to follow it. Owen’s mouth began to water.

Claire speaking shook him from his horny thoughts. “Can we go for a trot now? I want them to be warmed up enough for the gallop I wanna take through the small valley before the river.”

Owen paled. “You mean you want me to sit up and down like some retard— ugh. Alright. Don’t laugh at me though.”

She giggled. “I won’t. And it’s not that hard, you just have to feel the rhythm. Just try!”

Once they had been trotting for a couple of minutes, Owen finally got in sync with his horse’s trotting rhythm, lamenting the equine’s eagerness to go faster. “Ugh… redheads.” He joked, earning a failed attempt from Claire to push him off.

Once they reached the open field, he hopped off and let his horse graze in the vast grass patch. “What are you doing?” Claire wondered, slightly out of breath from the trotting session. She really needed to get back to working out.

Owen pulled out his iPhone, it was only a 7 plus model but its camera was powerful nonetheless. “I’m going to get in the middle of this field and you just come galloping past me, okay?” He smiled.

Claire smiled back and pursed her lips: it was clear he was going to try and take some pictures of her galloping in the wilderness. Her heart swelled.

To spare time and breath, she kept going in wide circles around him for a good five minutes. Once he was done, they both galloped across the field and hopped off at the end, Claire rushing to him to see what he had snapped. Some of the photos were blurry, but others looked like masterpieces. He had even taken a short slow motion video, because her hair flowing in the wind was a sight to see.

Owen pulled her closer and kissed her temple. “You are an absolute wonder.” He pecked her on the lips. “So perfect.” He said, before setting his favorite picture as his lock screen.

Claire almost teared up and just hugged him tight, before kissing him sweetly. She almost said the words, but instead she cleared her throat and blushed. “Thank you baby.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a little while before he added, “Shall we keep going?”  

 

* * *

 

Once at their destination, after having released the horses in a special paddock there — as they were often ridden to that location — Owen couldn’t help pulling Claire close from the belt loops of her jeans. If he had to be honest with himself, he had been dying to undress her for a while now, so he took this opportunity to do so, even if she’d be left in her bikini. 

She kissed him gently, tasting his lips with a moan. His fingers undid her jeans and pulled them down. He pinned her against a tree, allowing his hand to feel her creamy leg and bending it up while he adjusted between her legs. She groaned and nipped on his chin: he wasn’t the only one hungry for the other. 

Claire reached out and undid his pants, letting them fall down his legs. He was wearing his swim trunks under them. Owen slid his hands up her top and massaged her breasts for a few seconds, moaning against her neck while kissing it softly. 

He slowly removed her top and smiled, admiring her fair skin against that sapphire blue bikini he had seen her in previously. Claire kept her back against the tree, feeling him pressing against her as she removed his shirt. She groaned at how firm his chest was. She massaged his pectorals softly, then pressed on his six pack, her lips kissing him passionately. 

They left their things by the paddock and got on one of the rafts, enjoying the slow ride around the river and through the thick jungle. 

They had the whole raft for themselves, so they lied down at the front, curled up. Owen held her in his arms while her head rested next to his by the edge. 

“You are missing the landscape...” Claire mumbled, her eyes unable to leave his.

“No...I’m looking at it and it’s the most hypnotizing and penetrating landscape I’ve ever seen.”

She blushed. “Oh yeah?” She reached out and pushed his hair back. 

“It’s the most gorgeous shade of mint, and it has those adorable freckles adorning its surroundings. I could move in there and be the happiest man. I can’t think of anything else I could need that’s not in there.” He murmured, his fingers lacing with hers while they played. 

Claire smiled softly, brushing her lips against his before kissing him tenderly. “Do I really make you that happy?” She whispered, barely audible due to the sound of a waterfall just a few feet away from them.

“I want to give you the world and build you a throne.” He nodded.

She grinned and shifted closer, their legs tangling as his hand slowly caressed her back and their lips kissed gently but passionately. 

Claire gasped and pulled back, feeling how their raft moved along the waterfall, soaking them up with cold water. He laughed watching her hair stick all over her face. 

 

* * *

 

After lunch, Owen had ridden his bike over to the side of the beach. That road was quiet and straight enough to do what he had in mind. He stopped and parked the bike, and both of them got off. 

“It’s your turn!” He smiled happy. It was a fantasy of his to watch Claire ride his bike, and he had spent a few days begging her to let him teach her: this was one of the main reasons why they had come here.

She stood up straight and looked over at the bike. “Okay, but you won’t let go until I’m ready.” She poked his nose with her index finger. “Promise?” She smiled. She had bad memories of her dad teaching her to ride a bicycle and letting her go without any warning.

At her words, he just smirked and let his fingers trace small shapes against the fabric of her shirt, pulling her closer to him. “I promise you I won’t let go until you want me to.” He said softly, giving a small smile her way before swinging a leg over the bike and motioning for her to sit in front of him.

“Thank you.” She pecked his lips and smiled. Claire rubbed her arm lightly before adjusting and hopping onto the bike in front of him. 

She shifted and grabbed onto it. “It’s heavy...” she noticed before looking over her shoulder. “So what do I do next?” She asked eagerly. 

They were in a small quiet town, where traffic wouldn’t get in the way and that was helping with her nerves.

“The keys are in the ignition, start it up and then we can go slow.” He said and kicked the little stand up, keeping the bike balanced upright with his feet. He leaned down enough to grab the handle bars, making sure she was still comfortable with everything before they properly started.

Her green eyes fell onto the keys and nodded, “that makes sense.” She giggled and turned the bike on. She then looked at every thing on the handle bars, the brakes and all these buttons. “When do I do that thing you do with this?” She pointed out at the right handle. She was as curious as a little kid when it came to learning new things. 

“Just watch me. Keep your hands where mine are so you can pick up the movements.” He suggested, placing a small kiss on her shoulder. 

“Is it the gas?” She wondered, tilting her head to the side, feeling his arms meeting hers.

“Yeah it is.” He nodded. “To start off slow, you only pull it a little, the further back you pull it the faster it goes.” 

She looked back over her shoulder and rested her forehead against his for a second. “Okay.” She gently slid her fingers under his hand and waited for him to take the lead. 

Owen did exactly as he explained, letting them start slow but gradually picking up pace. “When you wanna slow down you gradually let the handle slip back into place.” He added. 

She felt him pulling it a little and felt the bike moving between her legs. She screamed softly and blushed. “Let’s go really slow at first.” She asked. She could feel her fingers wanting to pull for more gas, but she still wasn’t ready.

Owen only let out a laugh at her reaction and did as told, starting at a slow pace, constantly reassuring her things were going to be fine as long as she kept her focus on what she was doing and her surroundings.

“Just let me know when you wanna go faster.” He said loud enough for her to hear.

“Okay.” She nodded agreeing to let him know. “Can I try to keep the balance first?” She nibbled on her lower lip. “I think you are doing that, aren’t you?” She didn’t even know if that was the right way to call it. 

The redhead adjusted against his chest and kept her focus on the road like he instructed. “Where do you change gears?” She asked. She had actually fought herself not to read an entire book on how to ride a bike; he wanted to teach her and so she was going to learn everything from him.

He didn’t respond but he let her try it for herself. In all honesty he had faith in her, she often picked up quickly on stuff so this should work great. “The other handle.”

The bike started to stumble to the sides once he let her take control. She wiggled the handle bar around so they wouldn’t fall. “Babe~!” She called out for some help. 

At her word, he worked on steadying the bike in order to continue moving forward without falling. “It’s okay.” He murmured against her ear once they had steadied out.

She looked over at the other handle and started playing with the clutch, just to get familiar with it and how easy it was to press it. “Maybe once I can balance, we can speed up a bit.” She nodded.

“Alright, that can work.” He said softly and let her work on the balance every now and then, he would just randomly give her the control without letting her know.

It took Claire about twenty minutes to ride the bike steadily without it stumbling. She smiled proudly, even if that’s the only thing she was doing on her own so far. 

She kept her hands under his and slowly worked the gas, wanting more speed. She however overdid it, and the bike jumped forward, fast and forcefully. She screamed bloody murder.

Owen chuckled at the sudden jolt, and silently whispered that it was okay. “Move it slowly, gradually, not all at once.” He explained, nuzzling her neck and trying to keep her relaxed.

He did it this time, slowly turning the accelerator and letting the speed gradually increase.

Her heart was speeding now. She laughed now that he had gotten it under control and it was all okay. “I love that you have patience for this.” She smiled and kissed his arm. 

“I’ve gotta have patience. Especially when I work with animals every day. That takes time. I’m perfectly fine handling you for a while too.” He teased and just gave a small smile.

The redhead looked over and gave him a playful glare before nosing into his arm. “You are not the only one having to practice some patience around here, mister.” She teased back. 

She adjusted on the bike and started giving it a little gas only. Little by little they were riding along the beach. “Okay, I think I’m ready to start it up and drive on my own for a few blocks.” She said, looking over her shoulder for his okay.

“You sure? Do you want me to get off and let you do it yourself that way?” He asked softly, and soon enough, pulled the bike to a stop. “Or would you prefer still having me behind you?”

“No, I want you to stay, please.” She shook her head. “But I want to do everything and ride it.” She smiled. “I’m ready.” She had her legs hanging before she adjusted so she could try handling it by herself.

“Alright. I’ll hold on to the back rather than have my arms around you for starters, but if we start to wobble I’ll help steady us out.” He said softly and placed a gentle kiss on her neck before sitting back and gripping the back of the seat.

“Yes, please.” She nodded about him intervening the moment she needed help. She moaned softly at the kiss and smiled over her shoulder. “Before I go, I have one question...” She playfully asked. “How does it feel to have your woman riding your bike?”

“Well it’s sexy as hell, that’s for sure.” He murmured and kissed her neck one last time before letting her get prepared. “Okay, whenever you’re ready. Remember, gradually move it. When slowing down also gradually let it go as well as pulling on the brakes, because it’ll still move for a bit after you’ve stopped holding the clutch.” He explained.

Claire bit on her lip and nodded at his instructions. Now that he had let go of her hands, she rubbed them against her lap and caressed his arms, which were around her waist. 

“Okay, I think I’ve got this.” She nodded, and setting her feet up, she slowly started to move the bike forward. It took her a second to find the balance but she got it. 

“You have got this. You’ll be fine.” He agreed with a smile. 

“Oh my god, Owen!” She exclaimed in excitement. “Is this really me riding by myself?” She was tense but the bike was going forward steadily, slowly but steadily.

She was trying to remember everything he had taught her about the handle. She was very textual; organized. She had to go by the book. She really couldn’t believe she was actually riding that bike, even if only for a few blocks. 

“That’s it.” He said with a smile “Ease up a little, it’ll feel better.” He said softly and smiled.

She nodded and did as told. Claire eased up a little and did feel the difference. “Can we do a turn?” She asked. She wanted to push herself now.

“A turn? Sure. Just move the handle bars slowly to one side, don’t go too fast.” He suggested. “If we end up wobbling I’ll steady us, you just focus on actually moving us.” He assured her.

Claire nodded and started to turn the handle bars like he suggested. She did it the minimum and the bike started to do an open turn, “Like that, babe?” She wondered while getting a little tense and nervous. She was hoping not to lose balance.

“That’s it, a little bit more, let us turn around and head back the way we came from.” For now they were still somewhat steady, and if she did this right the balance would stay fine and they’d be going good.

Claire nodded her head, taking in his instructions. She managed to make the bike turn and almost brought her feet down to help, but didn’t have to. 

“You’re doing great, sweetheart.” He said softly and just let her focus on what she was doing.

“Did you see that?” She was happy. She let the bike keep its course for a few blocks, completely capable of riding it at a certain speed. 

“What’s next?” She asked, wanting more.

 

* * *

 

“I think the last ferry has officially left...” Owen casually pointed out while they relaxed in a natural pool they had found during their bike lessons. It was starting to get dark, it was definitely after six.

“Oh well...” Claire was terrible at hiding how much she preferred it that way. She moved in the water and sat slid on his lap.

She slowly kissed his lips soundly, her hands massaging his chest while his own traveled up her legs.

“I’m not complaining either...” He murmured. He moaned softly, feeling Claire’s hand slowly slipping under the waistband of his trunks.

“I want you...” She murmured against his ear, her hand finding what she was looking for and cupped it gently. “Let’s get a room...just you and me...make love to me.” She begged. 

Owen linked his eyes with hers, the desire she was feeling for him sparkling in her eyes. He wanted her too, there was no doubt about that. 

He slowly stood up after her and helped her out of the water. “I’ll go get the keys.” He agreed, kissing her softly. 

He didn’t want to seem desperate, but ended up trotting over to the reception to get one of those cabins the place offered. Claire gathered their things and smiled watching him walk back to her. He swept her off her feet, making her giggle, and handed her the key. 

They had cabin number 5. He hurried his step towards it, so they could spend the perfect night and finally consummate their relationship.

Claire was moaning loudly, arching her back against the mattress while she felt Owen’s warm and wet tongue pushing between her moist folds. Her fingers were running around the back of his head, pushing him further into her while she kept her legs wide open. 

Owen flickered the tip of his tongue against her clit, making her scream and pant in desperation. He smiled against her heat and let his tongue vibrate, feeling how she pushed his head forward against her. 

“I know I said I—” that last syllable dragged to become a scream, “I—I...” She was panting, Claire licked her lips. “I wanted you to make love to me.” She managed to say between her groans. “I changed my mind, okay?” She begged, she was keeping her weight on her arms, leaning over a little, seeing him completely buried between her legs. “I want you to… fuck me…ngg...that’s what… that’s what I want.” She gulped, “Fuck me, Grady!” She dropped her head against the pillow, curving her hips against his face.

Owen slid up from between her legs and kissed up her chest before he found her lips. “Turn around...” He murmured with authority. 

Claire fixed her eyes on his for a second before she did as told. He adjusted her body to his liking, at the angle he wanted her. Her hips curled up and her legs parted enough. He kneeled behind her and started to massage her pussy from behind, letting his fingers caress her wet folds. She was literally dripping for him, forming a puddle on the mattress beneath her. 

He let his middle finger penetrate her, making her groan loudly. “You are warm and soaked, gorgeous....” He moaned, his hands moving up her back while her weight was on her arms. 

Claire gulped and could feel her heart racing in anticipation, feeling how he was pressing against her ass. He positioned his cock and let its head part her folds, his hands resting on her hips so he could keep her steady. 

She cried out, feeling him penetrate her deep and hard. He brought one arm around her hips and let his other hand caress her back up and down slowly, in contrast with the fast thrusting he had immediately picked up.

There was no denial that both of them were extremely horny and there was not need to waste time and squeeze every drop of built-up desire they both felt for each other. 

He was groaning and panting while going fast, bending his head to watch his thick shaft coming in and out of that perfect pussy. He couldn’t get enough of her. Claire kept screaming his name, tilting her head back, feeling how he brushed his fingers through her hair and pulled a little on it. 

Owen pulled back and adjusted. He pushed her down a little, closing the angle between her and the mattress, and fully bent over her, using his hand to hold his cock before he pushed it back inside her, completely on top of her, mounting her like wild stallion would a mare in heat. 

His arm around her was holding her close to him possessively, while he slammed his hips fast and hard against her. 

The sound of her moans and the way she was crying out his name let him know she was close. He kneeled back, bringing her with him. 

Claire was now bouncing against his cock, her back leaned against his chest while his hand slipped between her legs and his index finger rubbed her clit. 

She tilted her head against his shoulder, meeting his lips for a heated kiss while she kept crying for more. 

“Cum for me, babe....” He demanded, panting and sucking on her tongue, needing a deep kiss to try releasing what was building up inside of him. 

“Make me....” She panted. 

Owen adjusted and started rolling his hip harder against her; she was bouncing fast, her tits following the pace. 

“Cum... I said.” He growled, lying her down on her stomach and rolling his hips fast, hearing her cry against the mattress. She started panting harder and her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest, as she felt like exploding. 

Claire released a high pitched cry, feeling her muscles tense around him. He gasped, finally letting go once he felt her release her warm juices, and filled her with his. He collapsed on the bed next to her and reached out, bringing her close. 

They kissed a couple of times, trying to catch up their breath before going for a second round. 

The first one to open his eyes the morning after was Owen. He found a sea of red hair over his chest while the beautiful woman it belonged to had her face hidden in his neck, her arms gently wrapped around his chest. 

“And here I was living a lie thinking you were an early bird...” He teased the sleepy woman. He kissed the tip of her nose and nibbled at it once she looked up. 

Claire giggled and nuzzled closer. “Well, I guess this means I’m in deep trouble now.” She playfully suggested, her fingers pushing his hair back. 

“Why is that?” He wondered with a smile, watching her shrug. Claire sighed contently and kissed his shoulder a couple of times. 

“I decided there’s nothing more beautiful than those freckles dancing across your nose.” He murmured. 

Claire giggled, feeling his lips kissing them gently. 

“I want to spend all morning counting them.” He was hypnotized by them. “I’m going to do it...you are not allowed to leave this bed until I’m done.” He decided. 

“I won’t want you to leave this bed even when you’re done.” She murmured before they exchanged a couple of pecks. 

“Okay, now let me count...” Owen smirked. “One...two...three...” He started counting, Claire’s fingers playing with his hair, their legs tangled under the sheets. Her green eyes were fixed on his while he counted. 

“No wait.. I already counted that one... but it’s okay, it’s my favorite so it counts for two.” He murmured before he kept going, he knew they were uncountable, but so was her beauty and the way he felt for her.  


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to my editor in Chief

“Can’t you read, Mr. Grady?” Claire giggled, her head was resting on his lap while they waited for sunrise. The park had yet to open its gates and people weren’t expected to start clocking in for another hour or so. 

Owen was sitting crossed legged, they were in a small fenced garden by the Innovation Center, the perfect spot for them to admire the sun waking up that morning. He had just picked a white daisy flower, the sign prohibiting this just next to him. 

The man smiled softly, looking down at her while grazing the flower down her cheek and tickling her nose with it. He made her sneeze, which he thought was the most adorable sound there was — maybe second best to her laugh. 

They had spent the night outside, having planned to just wait up for the sunrise. She was wearing the hoodie he had given her a month or so back. It was mid December and it could get cold in the wee hours of the morning. 

The rest of her body was under a blanket they had been sharing. They had a thermos with hot cocoa that they shared. Claire could feel her heart pounding fast, thinking this was definitely one of her favorite moments. 

She found her green eyes linked with his hazel ones: for a moment, everything around them vanished. It was just the two of them. The timer they had set on her cellphone started to go off: the sunrise should illuminate the lagoon any moment now. 

Owen helped her sit up, she covered him with their blanket before she nuzzled close. She closed her eyes and just let her nose take in his scent, feeling how her heart was the happiest when his arms were around her and his lips on her forehead. 

She smiled, feeling a kiss on her cheek before both their eyes fixed on watching the sun rise up. He had her between his legs, her back resting against his chest while their fingers laced and played under their blanket. 

It was a moment that lasted a few seconds; Claire looked behind her shoulder and kissed him gently. She let her nose brush against his and pressed their foreheads together. She gulped, feeling how her heart started beating fast. There was something she wanted to tell him for a while now. 

Owen let his eyes find hers, and reaching out, he brushed his fingers up her cheek, kissing her nose. Claire adjusted and sat across his lap so she could face him. “What is it, gorgeous?” He saw her nervously chewing on her lip. 

She blushed. “I love you...” She murmured, feeling how gentle he was when brushing her skin and playing with her hair. 

His eyes sparkled, there were not better words to hear from the woman you had fallen in love with than the three she had just said, confirming she reciprocated the feeling. That glow she had injected in those hazel orbs soon vanished and a frown grew between his brows. By then, a couple of seconds had gone by, but they felt like minutes to Claire. 

“Is...that okay?” She mirrored his frown, this foreign anxiety invading her mind. 

The instinct to keep her happy brought him out of his thoughts as he realized those green eyes were confused. “I love you, too.” He blurted out, resting his hands on her jaw and letting his thumbs caress her cheeks. The desperate need to assure her that he in fact loved her to death invaded him. He smiled and pecked her lips gently a couple of times, making her giggle. 

“Never ever doubt that.” He begged, his lips now brushing down her jawline. 

“Don’t give me a reason to.” She teased, before poking his nose with her finger. He let her giggles work as a transition to avoid acknowledging that request. 

It was the sound of vendors opening their restaurants and the many stores in Main Street getting ready for another day that worked as a cue for the couple to stand up and find a more private space. 

Claire took his hand and led him to the other side of the building. She had a place in mind where they could hide for a little while before letting their own work day start. Owen still suggested they stop by Starbucks and get their usual and maybe a piece of cheesecake to share.

There was a small playground still under construction across from the petting zoo by the pools, ready to offer their youngest visitors more fun and games. The two of them snuck into the restricted area. So far they already had installed the carousel as well as a bouncy house. They were working on the rails for a small train.

Claire motioned for the few workers there to leave the area and once they did, she pulled Owen towards the carousel and walked over to the control panel. “Wanna pick a dinosaur? I’ll meet you there.” She smiled and pecked his lips a couple of times before letting go of his hand.

Claire started the ride up and walked along the platform, trying to figure out a way to step on. Owen set their drinks and food near him and held onto one of the poles as he reached out so she could grab his hand, and steadily pulled her up. She laughed, able to keep her balance in her heels and fixed her eyes on his, stepping closer as he pulled her in for a kiss.  

They slowly started to walk on the platform, among the different dinosaurs. Owen pointed at a triceratops, but Claire wrinkled her nose and shook her head. He tried suggesting a couple more but she still didn’t like them. They eventually found a mosasaurus cart built to carry two children. Owen pointed at it and Claire finally nodded her head. 

He helped her in and then stepped in. Just her alone fit barely in the cart. He tried walking around it and finding a way to squeeze in. 

“Ouch...” Claire laughed, feeling how she was now too tight against the side and it hurt. She leaned back so he could grab onto both sides and try to get out, but he was pretty stuck. 

“I guess you are stuck with me.” He grinned, still unable to stand up. 

“You won’t see me complain...” She laughed before the two of them exchanged a kiss. 

“Give it five minutes.” He teased, knowing it didn’t take them long to start fighting, at times. 

“I’ll give it a life time~” She smiled against his lips, feeling his hand behind her neck bringing her close for another kiss. 

“Okay babe, do you think you can bring your leg up over to the side?” He scratched his head, trying to figure out a way to get unstuck. 

Claire nodded, and with a groan she managed to pull her leg back from under the cart and let it hang from the side. “Okay... now slide to the side.” Owen suggested, the redhead doing so. He had her sit sideways while between his legs, which were hanging from each side, while hers were both together. 

By the time they had managed to get in that small cart they were exhausted. “I think we just did more cardio here than when we have sex.” Owen teased her and reached for their coffee and their cheesecake, before wrapping his arms around her, hugging her against him. 

“Except sex is much better.” She played along, taking a sip from her coffee and setting it down in a small corner between the cart and her ass. 

Owen opened their cheesecake and slowly fed her the first bite. She nibbled on it and moaned softly. Claire reached over her shoulder for his neck and let her fingers brush his nape; her eyes closed and her head tilted to the side while his sticky lips peppered her neck lovingly. 

“I really do love you...” He murmured feeling how painful the thought of ever losing her was. 

“It did take you a second back there.” She teased him. 

“You leave me speechless.” He frowned lightly. “Any chance you can spend all day in here with me?” He smoothly changed the subject. 

“My ass is already numb.” She shook her head. “And I have a meeting with Masrani in an hour.” She closed her eyes, feeling his lips kiss the corner of hers, making her turn her head a little and meet him for a soft kiss. 

“Ah, right.” He cut another piece of their cheesecake and fed it to her. “I guess I’ll just spend the day with my other four girls.” He teased her. 

“Hmm.” She pretended to be a little jealous. “I don’t care how sharp their claws are, I can still bring them down.” She held the hand he was resting against her and kissed it softly a couple of times. 

“I would like to see that.” He chuckled, planting kisses on her shoulder. 

“Watch your women fight for your affection?” She smiled. The ride was still spinning around with the little melody playing along and eventual rawrs coming out of the speakers. 

Owen nodded against her neck and nuzzled it gently. She bit on her lower lip and gulped lightly. “So you said you have four raptors?” Claire wasn’t that familiar with the program, it was completely independent from the production of the park. 

“Yep. Blue, Charlie, Delta and Echo.” He shared. “And let me tell ya, they are a handful.” He smiled, his fingers brushing the palm of her hand while she kept it open.

“Let me guess...Blue is the special one.” She smiled. She was the one with a more personalized name, the odd one out. 

“Red is the special one.” He shook his head, chuckling against the crook of her neck, taking in that intoxicating vanilla scent still lingering in her skin. 

“You are so corny~” She giggled. “Also, don’t call me that unless you have a death wish, Grady.” She looked over and poked his nose with her finger. 

He held her finger hostage and let his teeth nibble at it softly. “Tell me something that’s blunt and honest.” She asked. 

“I never thought I’d end up falling this deeply in love with you so fast.” He murmured with a frown, kissing her finger softly a couple of times. 

“Damn...” She chuckled, letting her eyes glow while looking straight into his.

“Is that a bad thing?” He tilted his head. 

Claire shook hers. “No, not at all.” She blushed. 

After getting dizzy from the little carousel melody, they found themselves hiding in the bouncy house. They were lying close to each other, keeping their legs straight out, letting them rest after having gotten them numb on the carousel. 

She was resting against his chest, his arms holding her close and their legs tangled. Claire let her toes gently brush against his ankle. She was lost in his hazel eyes, thinking about how they had come this far. She blushed, remembering those days at the beginning when she had been rude to him. 

“A kiss for your thoughts?” Owen caught her pink cheeks and let his thumb caress her chin, tilting her head up a little. 

Claire shrugged. “What was it that made you insist so much?” She wondered with a murmur. 

Owen frowned and shook his head. He leaned down and kissed her softly, holding her close and just letting his lips answer that question with how he felt for her now and how glad he was that he had. 

She hummed to herself once he pulled back, offering a gentle smile. “Tell me what made you ask me out, baby...” She was curious, for some reason craving his adoration. “Tell me, when did you fall in love with me?” 

He hid his face in the crook of her neck. He sighed, feeling completely terrified. “I fell in love with you the moment I saw your smile.” He confessed. “I didn’t realize it until I noticed how stupid I was.” 

Claire smiled lightly, her fingers gently brushing his hair back. “I think I know that moment.” She nodded, blushing. 

“I wanted to be the man who makes you smile.” He nodded. He had asked her about that, what kind of man did it take to light up her smile. He wanted to be that man, and the moment she confessed he was, he knew he was stupid.

“You are not stupid...” She pressed her forehead against his, addressing his words but completely in sync with his thoughts. 

“I wanted to make sure I made you happy and gave you the world. I never wanted to hurt you.” He gulped. 

“Hurt me?” She frowned. “You are not hurting me, baby.” She was a little confused. 

Owen felt like he had to say all this before he came clean. It was obvious for the human eyes how in love she was, but hearing her say it… He knew he couldn’t keep doing this. Owen loved her and it was inevitable for her to eventually find out. 

“I don’t...I don’t know how to answer your question.” He frowned. 

Claire chuckled and tilted her head, “I just want to hear you say I’m pretty.” She shrugged. She wasn’t looking for anything too elaborated. She just wanted to stay in his arms and have him whisper sweet nothings to her ear.

He nodded, he was a little distracted and she could tell. She fixed her eyes on his: they were heartbroken. He felt like he was suffocating, like he was running out of air and his lungs were giving out. She was the air he needed to live and he knew this was probably the last time he’d have her in his arms. He had agreed on something without thinking about the consequences, and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. 

“Baby?” She pouted, slowly sitting up, watching him follow her, almost reaching out. “I’m not going anywhere.” She frowned: he was officially worrying her. She still inched close and nosed into his neck, brushing her lips against his jaw line. “I love you...” she whispered against his ear. “Talk to me...” 

He was crying, silent tears rolling down his cheek. He hoped that his pain would let her see that everything he had done from the moment he had first seen her smile was genuine. “I got paid.” He felt his heart sink into his stomach. 

Claire pulled away, and resting her hand on her stomach, feeling herself getting sick, she frowned. “What do you mean?” She gulped.

“I got paid to ask you out...to date you.”

The sound her heart made was that of a ceramic jar shattering after being dropped onto the floor. It had taken him three days to have her start bringing her walls down, but she built them back up in seconds. She refused to show him how much this hurt and how much she hated him in that moment, but she had to get out of there. 

Claire started to breathe fast while she fought within the bounce house. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” She pulled her arm away from him when he tried to reach out.

She finally managed to slide out of the inflatable building and started to walk back to the Innovation Center. She had to grab onto dumpsters and lighting poles on her way there, so she could keep going, feeling like she couldn’t take another step without crumbling down. 

She had to stop and hold tight on a bench, taking deep breaths, holding in the breakdown that was threatening to erupt from her. 

Owen was a few steps behind, going after her, begging her for a minute so he could talk and prove to her that he loved her to death. 

“Don’t you come any closer to me.” She was unable to keep herself from crying. Her hands were shaking as she covered her face, trying to remember how to breathe. 

She sobbed and, stumbling lightly, she kept walking. “I hate you...” She whimpered, feeling him grab her arms and turning her around. 

“No, you don’t.” He begged her and leaned closer to rest his forehead against hers. 

“I do...I hate you, you asshole!” She sobbed and pushed him away from her with all she got. Claire stumbled against Masrani, who was on his way to meet her. 

“Claire?” He held her forearms and frowned, seeing her cry. She sniffed and shook her head, breathing fast, trying to calm down. 

“I’m sorry I’m late.” She couldn’t look up. 

“The meeting is postponed.” He shook his head, his dark eyes trying to find her green ones. 

“Mr. Grady?” Simon was the one to let Claire know he was standing just a few steps back. The navy man reached out with a shaky hand and rested it over Claire’s shoulder but she brushed him off, her hands still holding tight onto her boss’s forearms to keep her balance. 

The CEO raised an eyebrow. It was evident that Owen was the reason why Claire was so inconsolable. “I will have to ask you to stay away from Ms. Dearing. It’s clear she is perturbed by your presence. I will take it in my own hands if I find out that you kept bothering her.” The man instructed Owen. “So please, Mr. Grady...” He demanded him to go back to work and leave the operations manager alone.

Masrani walked her back to her office, making sure Owen was not going to bother her anymore. He let her walk out of the elevator on her own and he took it back down. Zara was behind her desk, looking completely concerned and puzzled. 

She had never seen her boss like that. “Did you know?” Claire mumbled. She had so many questions, but right now her heartache wasn’t letting her think straight. “You helped him.” She sobbed. The redhead was not stupid, she knew there was someone giving tips to Owen at the beginning, always with the perfect drink and choice of food. 

Zara shook her head with a frown. She had no idea what Claire was talking about, but she knew it was not time to ask. She knew it had to do with Owen, though. 

Claire locked herself in her office and tried to clean her face the best she could. She then sat at her desk, and opening her laptop, she called Karen on Skype. She needed to talk to someone, and at the end of the day, her sister was the only person she trusted. 

“What’s wrong, honey?” Karen immediately noticed something was wrong with her younger sister. Claire started crying, unable to keep it together. “Aw, sweetie…” She frowned, watching her cover her face with her hands and sob inconsolably against them. 

She had never seen Claire like that before, but she had been through heartaches, and the sound of her sobbing was definitely caused by something truly painful. 

“I don’t think he ever even liked me.” She managed to stutter. Claire had talked to Karen about Owen ever since the moment she’d found herself attracted to him. “He was just doing it for cash.” 

Karen’s heart broke for her sister. She knew how in love she was with this guy, and no one could blame her, really. He had the world spinning in the palm of her hand. The elder Dearing not only wanted to comfort her sister, but didn’t want to sound like she was siding with Owen, either — who was a monster to Claire in this moment. 

“Do you know who was paying him?” She frowned, watching her sister shake her head. She wasn’t making eye contact with the camera. “How did you figure it out?” Karen asked softly. 

“He told me. He told me he loved me and not even an hour later he told me he had only asked me out because he had been offered money.” She sobbed. “I really loved him, Karen.” She finally looked up and let her sister see her eyes. 

Karen pouted. “I really thought he was crazy for you.” She admitted, guilty of feeding her sister a fairy tale she thought this man was willing to share with her. 

“He said he was stupid.” Claire frowned. “But I’m the stupid one, for trusting him and believe all his bullshit!” Claire was now furious with herself. “It was all a lie, it was all a game for him and I fell right into it.” She pulled his hoodie over her head and threw it across from her desk. 

“And an asshole is what he is.” Karen snorted, her sister nodding her head. “Wanna tell me how it happened?” She frowned. 

Claire shook her head, she didn’t want to talk about it but at the same time she needed to let it all out. “It was like guilt was eating him from the inside.” She tried to explain how the few seconds before he confessed had felt.

Karen tilted her head. 

“I’ve never seen him cry before.” Claire pouted. 

“He was crying?” 

Claire nodded.

The blonde sighed. “Hun, what else did he say?” 

“I don’t know.” Claire was feeling dizzy and confused. “I stormed off when he told me. I didn’t want to listen to him.” 

Karen frowned.

“This is so humiliating.”

“Do you want to know what I think?” Karen could understand why her sister felt so lost and broken. “I think he knew you wouldn’t want to listen to him when the time came, so he told you everything beforehand.” She didn’t wait for her sister to answer. 

“He thinks I’m a joke.” Claire shook her head. “He thinks my feelings are worth twenty bucks or whatever he got paid.”

“He thinks you are worth a very detailed and elaborated first date.” Karen added, remembering the glowing smile Claire had when she had come back from that date. 

Claire looked up and frowned.

“How many women do you know that had a man be so meticulous with every detail, the same way as Owen, on every single date?”

“None. But I don’t know anyone.” She pouted.

“Didn’t he stay up all night to help you the other day?” 

“Yeah but—”

“Do you think he got paid to do that?”  Karen tilted her head. 

Claire shrugged.

“You don’t have to believe him and you don’t have to forgive him, but I think you should listen to what he has to say.” Karen truly believed that there was more to this. 

Claire shook her head. “I don’t want to see him ever again.”

“Don’t do it for him, do it for you. It doesn’t have to be right now. But you deserve to know...because one day you might wonder about this.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to my editor in Chief! <3

A week had gone by, and Claire had never been more grateful for the ability to adapt that she seemed to possess. It had been a very quiet one on her end, still not knowing who had thought that playing with her feelings would be something fun. She avoided talking face-to-face to anyone unless she had to, and even then she was brief and fast. 

She had also started to work on her laptop outdoors, at either Winston’s or any of the other restaurants, getting lost in the sea of guests who didn’t know anything about how she was feeling and could have never potentially mocked her. 

There were times when she couldn’t help herself but wonder who could have possibly paid Owen to do that; it had to be someone who despised her enough and thought of her as a heartless, emotionless monster. It was when she found herself on the edge of tears that she realized she didn’t even care who it had been: Owen was the one who had directly hurt her, leading her on and going out of his way to make her fall in love. 

Owen had been watching her from afar. She was so beautiful, even if the light he had brought to her was gone. He could feel how much it hurt with each beat his heart gave. Every afternoon, for his lunch break, he sat at the restaurant across from hers and took a table that would allow him to observe her. 

It was hard to wake up very morning wanting to see her and hold her, desperate to kiss her and feel her. He knew better than to approach her, though: each passing day she seemed more and more in peace and he would be selfish if he ever perturbed her. Owen needed to tell her how much he loved her, that he wasn’t lying when he’d told her that he wanted to give her the world and build her a throne. Claire was the queen of his heart. He just took his cellphone out and started to type everything that he wanted to tell her. He didn’t know if she would read it, but at least he could let it all out without being interrupted. 

He didn’t know how long it had taken him to type it all out, but he hit ‘send’ as he brushed the tears on his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt, and immediately looked up. He watched her move her eyes from her laptop and pick her cellphone up. Those green eyes saddened when she read the notification. Owen looked down to his screen, the text now showing it had been read. Hazel eyes turned back to her and watched her read the message:

 

 _Am I a coward for sending you this text message instead of standing up and walking over to face you, letting my eyes look into yours? Maybe. But believe me, I’m fighting the burning need to kneel down and beg you to hear me._  

_Very soon after we met, I found myself realizing you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and it kills me that it’s because of people like me that you live with so many walls surrounding you, not letting the world see the real you. I betrayed your trust and I will never forgive myself for it, Claire. And please, know that I don’t expect you to, either._

_I remember the first time you smiled and how right away I knew my purpose in your life. I hate that I welcomed myself into it in the worst kind of ways, completely ruining my chances to fulfil my desire to make you the happiest woman on earth._

_It’s not that I feel like I owe you an explanation, because there’s no excuse for what I agreed to do. I never meant to hurt you, my intention was not to break your heart. Maybe you feel like I was leading you on, but truth is, I was genuinely wooing you. This is why I need to tell you everything, and also because I don’t want you to hear it from anyone else._

_I was sitting just a couple of tables away from you on that afternoon when we met, and god, honey…you have no idea how much I wish I could turn back time and approach you without any hidden agenda, because it’s not that I wouldn’t have. We belong together, and somehow I would have ended up under your hypnotizing spell anyways, wanting to meet you and make you mine for the rest of my life._

_Your cleaning staff came to me; they wanted me to talk to you and ask you out, that all they wanted was to watch their soccer games so they needed to keep you distracted a couple of hours every other day._

_So every time we went out, I tried to keep you away from the park while they gathered in the cafeteria and enjoyed their match._

_They did such a great job at picking up the guy to do that, that they chose someone who ended up falling so deep in love with you. There was not a script or a guideline I had to keep, all they wanted was for you to be distracted. The dates, the moments, the gestures, the long nights talking, the kisses, the love making... that was all me. That was me being REAL with the woman I love._

_I don’t care about them, I don’t care about the money, all I care about is you, Claire. They are probably all squeezed in a supply closet now, trying to watch the game and all I can think about is how I let that be my problem. They spent a lot of energy and a lot of money to get what they wanted, but the one who paid the biggest price was you and I’m the one who extended the receipt. I lost the love of my life by agreeing to this._

_I lost everything by hurting you, and it kills me that you will never believe how much I love you._

 

Claire was sobbing uncontrollably and crying by the time she finished reading that text message. Seeing her completely devastated broke Owen down as well, but he had said everything he felt she needed to hear. Maybe she would never forgive him, but at least he hoped she’d know that what they had was real. 

The redhead covered her face with her hands, she loved him so much and it hurt that she felt like he never cared one bit. 

She closed her laptop and rested her cellphone on the table. Her eyes hurt from all the heavy crying; it felt like her pain was pushing down, overflowing. 

She sniffed and slowly turned to her right, finding him sitting at a table on the other side of the street. He was also silently crying, the pain in his eyes very similar to hers. 

Claire gathered her things and stepped onto the street. She let him see her eyes and fix his in them for a few seconds: he had already stood up when she did. She frowned and slowly tore her gaze from his before she started to walk away. 

Once she managed to stop crying, she started to feel upset and wanted to yell at somebody. She remembered Owen’s message saying there was a game going. She headed down to the janitor’s warehouse. She thought she would be able to hear the game from outside while she walked down the steps to the door, but it was dead silent. 

She opened the door just to find a large group of cleaning staff members sitting on the floor, a couple of them were crying and the rest were really upset. Her green eyes scanned the room: there was an old tv over the washing machine. 

She thought she’d be able to start screaming at them, but she started to tear up in front of them instead. They had played her the cruelest of jokes, they had hurt her in the worst possible way, they had humiliated her. 

There was a moment of silence; everyone in that room had something in common. “What could you possibly be crying for?” She managed to ask them.

“We lost.” They complained. Their team had just played the home game of a very crucial round in the tournament. This was a key game for them to keep advancing up to the final game. It was basically over for their team, since winning gave the other team an open advantage. 

Claire scoffed and pursed her lips. “I’m sorry playing with my feelings wasn’t enough to make your team win.” She was very snarky with that comment but she didn’t care. 

All the people in that room dropped their eyes on her, watching her look down at her hands. They were rather shocked at how the ice queen could have feelings like any other human being. They gulped.

“Miguel and Hector, may I have a word with you please?” She requested. “The rest are excused.” She saw the other practically fleeing out of there. The two of them were the only ones who spoke English in that room, so it hadn’t taken her long to figure out they were the main people involved in that bargain.

Both janitors were quiet, studying her body language. She was truly defeated, it wasn’t intimidating at all. It was heartbreaking.

“How much?” She sobbed. She had no reason to hide from them and pretend she was standing tall. They knew more than she did, after all. They had been the ones to play her for a fool. “How much did he ask?” She frowned, crying in front of them. “How much am I worth?” 

She brushed her tears off her face and tried to keep eye contact. “A hundred dollars per date.” They murmured.

She shook her head. She didn’t know if she should be flattered or insulted that they thought she was worth that much. She gulped, trying to figure out which ones of their dates had been paid for and which ones had been solely on Owen.

Miguel and Hector took a second to look at each other. “He wanted money to upgrade his bike.” They looked down. 

Her heart shattered even more, if possible. How this would hurt her had been apparently irrelevant compared to his stupid bike. She was inconsolable at the moment. 

“But he never spent a penny on it.” They added. “From what we know, ever since you agreed to go out with him, he has used that money to make sure you could have everything he thought you deserved.” They shrugged. 

Claire tilted her head, their words resonating with something Karen had said and also with his message from earlier. 

They brought a calendar out and unfolded it for her. They had written down the dates they had paid him for and where they were located, next to each game they had been able to enjoy. 

Claire reached out, and, sniffing, tried to focus her puffy eyes onto it. “Those are the slots we payed him for, everything else he did because he wanted to.” They explained. 

The redhead read carefully through it, her tears pampering the piece of paper as they fell onto it. She started counting the dates: he had made at least twelve hundred dollars. 

“He really fell in love with you.” They admitted, feeling her eyes on theirs. 

Claire kept the Champions League schedule the two janitors had given her, and once she was alone in her office she started to put together everything on her own. She had a text message with Owen’s apology, she had Karen’s input, and even the janitor’s observations. It was time she saw the whole picture from her own perspective. 

She used small post-its to write down the most significant moments she has shared with Owen and started to place them on the dates she recalled they had happened on. She used blue post-its for things that had happened on days when he was not getting paid and pink for the dates they’d had when he was being paid. 

It took her all morning but she had finally diagramed their entire relationship from start to finish. There were only roughly sixteen things he had done in exchange of a hundred bucks each, an average of one per week, and then there were many things they did that weren’t involved with his little bet. 

She curled against the box cushion while sitting on the floor and got lost in her thoughts. She slowly fetched her cellphone and opened the iMessage conversation she had with Owen. 

 _I_ _believe_ _you_.

 

* * *

 

Just like she had been doing lately, Claire found her usual table at Winston’s. She was working on her laptop. She was slowly starting to concentrate on her work and adapt that to the void this heartbreaking experience had left in her. 

Owen watched her from the other side of the street. He looked around and found the table he had eaten at that day a few months ago, empty. He quietly took it and ordered the same thing he had been eating that day. 

He tried to eat, but he couldn’t keep his eyes away from her. He took a deep breath and quietly inched to her table, taking the seat next to hers. 

Claire moved her green eyes from her screen and fixed them on his, tilting her head. 

“I don’t think we have been introduced.” He gulped, “I’m Owen Grady, the man of your dreams.” He smiled shyly. 

Claire remembered that pick-up line and how that had been the first thing he had said to her. She was quiet, letting her eyes penetrate his like it was the first time they were seeing each other. 

“I noticed you from my table and I couldn’t shake off how pretty you are.” He murmured, trying to keep his voice from cracking, the sound of her voice asking him what was it that made him ask her out, playing in his head. That had been the last second he had seen her smile and happy. She just wanted to hear him say she was pretty, and just turned that moment into a gray memory stained with painful tears. 

Claire frowned softly and gulped.

Owen tilted his head to the side and pulled his chair closer. “Can I get you something to eat? Your food is now cold.” He looked down at the forgotten plate of food she had on her table.

The redhead nodded and, biting lightly on her lip, she mirrored his action and pulled her chair closer. 

Owen called for a waiter and ordered their usual. He closed her laptop and pushed it to the side. Claire’s eyes moved over as she tilted her head. 

“So I heard you installed a couple of TVs in the cafeteria.” Owen smiled softly. 

Claire shrugged. “They can only watch an hour of the games and it airs at their lunch time.” She filled him in. 

He chuckled and shook his head. He then let his eyes fall on hers and pulled his chair even closer. 

Claire rubbed her knee against his and nibbled on her lower lip. He leaned closer, resting his arm on the edge of the table and watched her mirror his actions. 

He smiled and slowly reached out, brushing his fingers down her arm. She didn’t pull back, so he took her hand and let his fingers get familiar with her freckles and her warmth. 

She smiled faintly, enough for Owen to close the space between them and brush his lips against hers and feel her kissing him softly. A kiss that was slowly starting the healing process, his other hand running around her neck, pulling her closer. 

“I missed you...” She admitted while sitting on his lap, his arms tightly wrapped around her waist while his lips were peppering her neck, worshipping each freckle on it with gentle kisses. 

“I missed you too.” He murmured, brushing his nose against her cheek so Claire could turn to face him and kiss him softly. 

They were at the back of the cafeteria during the latest game. They had decided to join the people who had brought them together and see what the game was all about. The couple hadn’t paid attention to one second of the match. 

Claire adjusted and curled against Owen’s chest. She hid her face in the crook of his neck and took in his scent. She sighed against it, and after a couple of seconds she fixed her eyes on his. 

“I love you~” He nibbled on her nose, his hand gently against her thigh, making her giggle.

“Say it again...” She requested, murmuring against his lips, brushing her nose against his. “And again.”

“I love you, Claire Dearing.” He did as told. “I love you so much.” He kissed up her chin and to the back of her ear, whispering gently in it. “I’m so in love with you.” 

She smiled and shivered, feeling her heart beating for the first time in a couple of weeks. “I love you too, Owen Grady…” She whispered into a loving kiss. “So, so much."

 

_**~ • The End • ~** _


End file.
